Emergency services respond amid Russian strikes across Ukraine, March 24, 2026

EA-War and Politics 24 Special: How Ukraine Defeated Putin’s “3-Day War”

Monday’s Coverage: Russia Launches Offensive in East

UPDATE 0908 GMT:

An international alumina supply chain is helping Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, concludes an investigation by a consortium of journalists.

A leading Irish firm, Aughinish Alumina, has sharply increased shipments to Russian smelters since the full-scale Russian assault in February 2022.

Based in western Ireland, Aughinish has been owned by the Russian aluminium group Rusal since 2006. It is the largest producer of the raw material for making aluminum in Europe.

Rusal is part-owned by the Russian metals tycoon Oleg Deripaska, who is under international sanctions. However, Rusal’s shipments are legal as the European Union has not placed sanctions on alumina.

In Russia, the alumina is converted into aluminum, used by more than 40 arms manufacturers who are sanctioned by the European Union.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Russia’s overnight strikes on Ukraine’s cities have murdered at least four civilians and injured 16.

Explosions were reported from just before 3 a.m. in Poltava in central Ukraine, Zaporizhzhia in the south, and the Ivano-Frankivsk region in the west. Subsequent assaults were reported across the country from the Sumy region in the northeast to the Kherson region in the south.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky posted that the attacks included more than 390 strike drones and 34 missiles.

At least one person was killed and five injured in Zaporizhzhia city. Six apartment buildings, two homes, and an “industrial infrastructure facility” were damaged and set on fire.

In Poltava, at least two civilians were slain and 11 wounded. Several residential buildings and a hotel sustained damage.

In the Kherson region in southern Ukraine, a man was murdered in a strike on a residential building.

In his nightly address to the nation, Zelensky warned, “Please pay attention to air raid alerts today. There is information from our intelligence that the Russians may be preparing a massive strike….Please take care of yourselves and of Ukraine.”