Russia’s war on Ukraine latest: Russia attacks along Ukraine front

March 24 (Reuters) – Russian forces attacked northern and southern sections of the frontline in Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region on Friday, continuing their offensive despite claims from Kiev that Moscow’s attack was easing near the town of Bakhmut.

WARZONE

* About 10,000 Ukrainian civilians, many elderly and with disabilities, are clinging to existence in appalling circumstances in and around the besieged city of Bakhmut, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.

* Russian missile attacks and shelling killed at least seven civilians in northern and eastern Ukraine, regional officials said, including at least three women at a civilian shelter.

* Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces had destroyed a hangar housing drones belonging to Ukrainian forces in the country’s southwestern Odessa region.

* Russia wants to create demilitarized buffer zones inside Ukraine around areas it has annexed, an ally of President Vladimir Putin said on Friday, saying it may be necessary to penetrate deeper into Ukraine if such zones cannot be established.

* Reuters could not immediately verify battlefield reports.

RUSSIA

* The Estonian Foreign Ministry on Friday said it had decided to expel a Russian diplomat working at Moscow’s embassy in Tallinn over “divisions in Estonian society”.

* Russia’s middle class will shrink as social inequality rises in the coming years, an economic study conducted by Russian experts suggests, as sanctions on Moscow and limited growth potential weigh on development prospects.

* A Russian security official who fled the country for objecting to the invasion of Ukraine has been sentenced to six and a half years in a maximum-security prison, news website Taiga.info reported on Friday.

DIPLOMACY

* Air force commanders from Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark said on Friday they had signed a memorandum of understanding to create a unified Nordic air defense aimed at countering the increasing threat from Russia.

* China’s partnership with Russia has limits, despite rhetoric to the contrary, and Europe should welcome any attempts by Beijing to distance itself from Moscow’s war in Ukraine, said European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.

QUOTE

“All you see are people being pushed to the very limits of their existence and their survival and their resilience,” the ICRC said of the civilians in Bakhmut.

“Drones are potentially a game-changer on the battlefield, as precise Western MLRS has been over the past year,” Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov told Reuters, referring to Multiple Launch Rocket System weapons.

Compiled by Reuters editors

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