Embassy of Ukraine in the USA
WAR BULLETIN
March 30, 10.30 a.m. EST
WAR ROOM
General Stuff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
The total combat losses of the enemy from 24.02 to 30.03:
personnel - 17300,
tanks ‒ 605,
APVs ‒ 1723,
artillery systems – 305,
MLRS - 96,
Anti-aircraft warfare systems - 54,
aircrafts – 131,
helicopters – 131,
vehicles - 1184,
vessels - 7,
fuel tanks - 75,
UAVs operational-tactical level - 81.
special equipment - 21.
mobile SRBM systems - 4.
Data are being updated.
The thirty fifth day of the resistance of the Ukrainian people to the Russian military invasion has already started.
The units of the 4th (Tskhinvali district, South Ossetia) and the 7th (Abkhazia) military bases, belonging to the Southern Military District, were deployed from the occupied territories of Georgia to the territory of Ukraine in order to perform the units manning of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
Three BTGs with a total number of up to 1,200 Russian and Ossetian servicemen were formed and sent to Ukraine from the 4th military base as well as two BTGs – from the 7th military base numbering 800 pax.
In the temporarily occupied territories of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, the enemy continues committing illegal acts against the local population. Thus, in the settlement of Velyka Bilozirka (Zaporizhzhia region), Russian troops located hardware between the residential buildings.
In the city of Melitopol (Zaporizhzhia region), Russia set up the checkpoints and enforced a permit regime on the outskirts of the city. The enemy continues looting the homes and apartments of local residents, detaining pro-Ukrainian activists and public officials of Ukraine.
In the temporary occupied territory of Luhansk region, the occupying authorities plan to organize another wave of mobilization since this April, 1. It is possible that such efforts will be made also in the recently occupied territories of the region.
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue experiencing problems with the units manning. Thus, the servicemen of the 26th Tank Regiment from the component of the 47th Tank Division, who signed the contracts after their participation in the war with Ukraine, started submitting reports on terminating the contracts.
Ukrainian Forces repulsed four Russian attacks in Donetsk and Luhansk directions for the last 24 hours. Our soldiers destroyed 7 tanks, 7 armored units, 2 motor vehicles and anti-tank gun.
Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights
Mass abductions by Russian invaders continue in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
Today in Kherson region, Russians, who introduced themselves as police officers, captured a well-known public figure, volunteer and priest of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine Serhiy Chudynovych. Three military men broke into the church, searched it, checked the documents and messengers of those present, and then took Farther Serhiy away.
As of March 30, the Russian military abducted the mayor of Primorsk, Zaporizhia Oblast, Oleksandr Koshelevych, the mayor of Beryslav, Oleksandr Shapovalov, and the mayor of Gil’s Prystan, Oleksandr Babych, in Kherson Oblast.
In Sumy region, the invaders kidnapped the head of the Novoborovytsia municipality, Anatoliy Syry. Russians said they would return the mayor if the road to Novye Borovich was cleared of fallen trees.
In total, since the beginning of the war, the occupiers have kidnapped 11 mayors and 8 other municipal officials.
By taking hostages, Russians grossly violate Articles 3 and 34 of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
I ask the international community to increase sanctions and economic pressure on the terrorist state of the Russian Federation to stop the military invasion of Ukraine and return all the hostages taken.
The occupiers are mining Ukrainian land with their latest anti-personnel mines POM-3 "Medallion".
Cases of using mines with a seismic target sensor have been recorded in Kharkiv region. Russian invaders use them for remote mining of the region.
The mine is equipped with an electronic seismic sensor that receives a signal of ground vibration and provides detonation if the amplitude of the oscillation corresponds to human footsteps. After that, the combat part of the mine flies to a height of about one and a half meters and explodes.
The use of POM-3 mines is prohibited by the Ottawa Convention on the Prohibition of Anti-Personnel Mines, as they are instruments of indiscriminate warfare. Such mines are produced only in Russia.
The occupiers' actions violate the Protocol to Prohibit or Restrict the Use of Mines, Traps and Others to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts.
More than 10 million Ukrainians have already left their homes due to the fighting in Ukraine
Almost 4 million Ukrainians have left our country, mostly women and children.
Citizens of Ukraine become refugees of War due to constant shelling and bombing. Every day, enemy missiles and shells destroy their homes and take away the most valuable thing - the lives of children.
Yesterday it became known that on March 24, 2022, a 9-year-old girl received multiple facial injuries as a result of enemy bombing of civilians in the town of Trostyanets in the Sumy Region.
Earlier it was reported that an 11-year-old Ukrainian gymnast Kateryna and her father died under the ruins of their own house in Mariupol. It is now known that a few days after Catherine's death, the enemy fired on the children's hospital where Catherine's brother was staying with his mother. The whole family died.
The bombing and shelling already damaged 790 educational institutions. 75 of them were completely destroyed. The worst situation is in Donetsk, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Kyiv, Kherson, Chernihiv regions and the city of Kyiv.
The actions of the Russian occupation forces violate the right of children to life, which is enshrined in Article 6 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine
From March 29 to 30, rescuers of the Kharkiv garrison of the State Emergency Service (SES) continued to perform their duties and carried out 68 visits. In particular, they carried out 14 visits to extinguish fires caused by shelling of residential high-rise buildings, private, warehouse and other buildings that arose in the residential areas of Kyiv, Shevchenkivskyi and Moscow districts of Kharkiv.
State Emergency Service pyrotechnic units neutralized 28 explosive devices.
https://www.facebook.com/mvs.gov.ua
POLICY
President of Ukraine
Speech by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Folketing
Mr. Speaker!
Mrs. Prime Minister!
Members of the Government and the Folketing!
Danish people!
40 missiles. Every day, Russian troops use so many different but equally deadly missiles against our state, against Ukraine. This is the average number per day. 40. More than 1,370 missiles have been used in just over a month of Russia's full-scale invasion of our land.
This morning the Russian missiles hit one of our southern cities - Mykolaiv. The city of shipbuilders. Absolutely peaceful city, which dreamed of only one thing - to regain the glory of the center of shipbuilding in the Black Sea region. As a result of this strike, the building of the regional administration was destroyed. It is known that seven people were killed and 22 were wounded. Debris removal continues. The Mykolaiv region residents didn't have any military dreams. They posed no threat to Russia. But they, like all other Ukrainians, believe me, have become a target for Russian troops. For missiles, bombs, rocket artillery, mortars.
The total number of means of destruction that Russian troops have already used against our people on our land is simply impossible to count. But we can say that the intensity and brutality of the hostilities against us have reached a level even higher than during World War II. The most devastating war for Europe. A month of hostilities - and we already have not one or two, but a whole black list of cities that were completely destroyed by Russian bombing.
In dozens of other cities, towns and small villages, residential areas were partially burned, infrastructure was destroyed and enterprises where people worked were blown up. Living, ordinary people.
773 educational institutions - universities, schools, kindergartens - were destroyed. 773. Imagine! And dozens of hospitals, churches, even memorials to Holocaust victims have become targets...
The goal of Russian troops in this war is to completely destroy any basis for the normal life of the Ukrainian people. The occupiers are deliberately making sure that nothing is left of Ukraine. Only ruins. Only refugees.
More than 10 million Ukrainians have already fled their homes due to the hostilities. Almost 4 million Ukrainians have left our country, most of them women and children. The stories of these people are full of horror.
There are still many burned and shot cars on the roadsides in the areas where the Russian military came. Hundreds and hundreds of such cars, what’s left of them. The occupiers were killing civilians even when they were just trying to escape! Along with our immigrants in Europe and the western regions of Ukraine, there are children who were simply picked up on the road near the corpses of their parents.
Up to 100,000 people remain in our city of Mariupol, which has been blocked by Russian troops for more than three weeks. While there was snow people melted it to get water. All this time we can't deliver humanitarian goods to the city - they are simply blocked. Water, food, medicine. Everything is blocked by the Russian military. More than 90 percent of all buildings in Mariupol were completely destroyed by shelling and bombs. But Russian aircraft strike without stopping. They purposefully blow up even shelters, although they know for sure that peaceful people are hiding there - women, children, old people. What Russian troops are doing to Mariupol is a crime against humanity that is being committed live in front of the eyes of the entire planet. Why is this even possible? Why can't the world stop this flow of Russia's war crimes ongoing since February 24 this year?
The answer is very simple and cynical. People who make decisions in Russia hope that they will get away with it. Sanctions? They think they can be bypassed. An embargo on Russian oil? They see that this is still nothing more than just talking about this important topic. And concern, constant concern. An international tribunal? They know that it takes years to bring specific perpetrators to justice.
That is why we appeal to you and to the entire democratic community of the world: sanctions against Russia must be strengthened! Constantly. We need to give up Russian oil, we need to block trade with the Russian Federation, we need to close ports for Russian ships. And this must be the solidarity policy of the European Union, of all the member states. Everyone.
It is you, in Denmark, in the country where the basic principles of the European Union, the Copenhagen criteria, come from, who can feel most of all how important it is for all-European solidarity to work for pressure on Russia. Because this pressure is for Russia to seek peace. This is pressure to give the necessary protection to all the basic values on which life in Europe is built and which are now completely trampled by Russia in Ukraine.
What can be said about the protection of human rights or freedom on the European continent, if there is no such crime against people and humanity in general not committed by the occupiers? They deport our people to Russia by force, rape women, underage girls, and engage in looting. They have already taken more than two thousand children to Russia, and we do not know where they are, we do not even have a complete list of these children. Do they have families? How will they then find their loved ones?
It would be simply impossible for a normal person to imagine the level of evil that was brought to our land! That is why I call on you to raise the issue of solidarity in the defense of freedom, in the defense of humanity at the level of the European Union. There can be no Russian branches in Europe that split the EU from within, that are trying to help Russia make as much money as possible even now.
Everyone knows very well who in the European Union opposes humanity and common sense. Who does nothing at all to help establish peace in Ukraine. This must stop, and Europe must stop listening to any excuses from official Budapest. I am grateful to Denmark for its principled position. Thank you to everyone. I am grateful to your people who help Ukraine and help Ukrainians. To your companies that have decided to leave the Russian market. Maersk, Jysk, Lego, Vestas, DSV, Arla Foods, Carlsberg and many other companies who have made this important decision. But I ask you not to stop, to be leaders in Europe in promoting the decisions we really need.
Long before this war, it was clear that humanity should reduce the use of fossil fuels. The era of coal and oil has caused huge damage to the environment, to our planet as a whole. Green technologies and green energy have become a logical and just answer to this challenge.
European policy is already aimed at reducing the consumption of environmentally hazardous resources. But Russia's aggression against Ukraine and against everything that life in Europe is built on is an argument to accelerate green transformation on the continent. Europe must give up Russian oil, give up as soon as possible!
Because it is the crazy income from energy resources that allows the Russian leadership to be bold. Violate generally accepted rules. Promote hatred against other nations, against us and destroy the lives of neighboring countries. If you had to find the complete opposite of what is called the "Law of Jante" in your country, it would be the "Law of Russian Oil".
I am confident that together - only together with all Europeans, with all responsible states on the planet - we will be able to overcome this catastrophe. We will be able to return to peace. We will be able to live together in a European family. I hope this will happen very soon. But it depends on how consistent and principled we remain at this time. At a time when the war continues. However, we have no right now to think only of war. We know there will be peace. We know that we will be able to return to a normal, peaceful life. That is why I want to invite you to join our initiative to rebuild Ukraine after the war, after our victory. We invite your companies, your specialists, your state. Knowing your potential, your creative economic power, I offer your country to take patronage over one of our beautiful regions - after the war. Of course, after the war.
Mykolaiv, the city of shipbuilders, can become such a city, such a region, which will unite you and us even more. Which Denmark can help rebuild.
Now is the dark time in Ukraine. Thousands of candles are placed in our churches in memory of the people whose lives were taken by this war. I know that for you the warm light of candles is a synonym of home comfort, ordinary good human life. Life, which today has become an unattainable dream for many in Ukraine. The Russian invasion continues. But I believe, I know, that we can return to peace. I ask you to light a candle at home tonight in memory of all Ukrainians whose lives were taken by Russian aggression.
Deputy Prime Minister
Iryna Vereshchuk, Deputy Prime Minister - Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories announced the approval of three humanitarian corridors in Zaporizhzhia region and called on the UN Security Council to take measures to demilitarize the Chornobyl zone due to the danger of detonation of Russian ammunition.
In Ukraine, as of March 30, three humanitarian corridors have been agreed in Zaporizhzhia region for the evacuation of Mariupol residents to Berdyansk and for the evacuation of residents of Melitopol and Enerhodar.
The Deputy Prime Minister stressed that the Ukrainian side demands that the occupying forces abide by their commitments and allow humanitarian columns through checkpoints.
"Yesterday, during the talks, the Russian delegation received proposals to organize humanitarian corridors to the 97 most affected settlements in the Kharkiv, Kyiv, Kherson, Chernihiv, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Luhansk and Mykolaiv regions. Today we will continue to work to get answers to these proposals," underlined the Deputy Prime Minister.
She reminded that on March 29 a detonation of ammunition took place at the warehouse of the Russian Armed Forces in Belgorod, Russia. According to Iryna Vereshchuk, this is an example of the typical Russian neglect of safety and mass use of dangerous ammunition produced during World War II.
"Only yesterday, the Ukrainian General Staff warned of the threat of self-detonation of ammunition, a huge number of which Russia has piled up near the Chornobyl nuclear power plant. Russia must immediately withdraw its troops from the Chornobyl zone," said the Deputy Prime Minister.
According to her, in the context of nuclear security, the irresponsible and unprofessional actions of the Russian military pose a very serious threat not only to Ukraine, but also to hundreds of millions of Europeans.
"Therefore, we demand that the UN Security Council take immediate steps to demilitarize the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone and establish a special UN mission there to eliminate the risk of repeating of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster as a result of actions of the Russian occupation forces," Iryna Vereshchuk said.
Prime Minister of Ukraine
Denys Shmyhal: “For the first time since the beginning of the war, we are holding an open meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers. We will do this from time to time so that people can see that we are taking a number of steps day after day to approach our joint victory”.
Most of the fellow ministers perform their activities in Kyiv. Others are now on business trips in different parts of our country to coordinate processes, communicate with people, get all the necessary information first hand, communicate with business.
In recent weeks, the Government has developed 9 main directions of how the country will live, work, accumulate resources, defend itself in a full-scale war. Every day we fill each of these sectors with specific solutions.
1. Army as the topmost issue. It means providing the defence forces with everything necessary. Cash payments, weapons, equipment, food, fuel, development of the military-industrial complex. All resources are primarily directed to the defence forces. Tens of billions hryvnias have already been redistributed to the army, and we will continue to do so.
2. Food Security. We have formed strategic food stocks for several years ahead in Ukraine.
Spring sowing campaign has already begun in 11 regions. We also help farmers with exports and will now actively expand this domain, because the country should earn.
We have launched a program of free distribution of key social products in frontline cities. The state procures more than 10 such products and then distributes them among people. It also means the support of a Ukrainian producer - the support of our food industry.
3. New Economic Policy. Drastic reduction of taxes to 2% of turnover. Abolishing VAT, abolishing income tax. Complete deregulation for business. Declarative principle of work. The world's fastest customs service. Abolition of import VAT and import duties. Loans for entrepreneurs at 0% up to UAH 60 million. Assistance in relocating businesses to safe regions.
4. ePidtrymka and social assistance programs. In March we have conducted indexation of pensions, and in April - in the regions where hostilities are taking place, pensions are paid in advance. We cover all the social benefits. Under the ePidtrymka program the Government has paid UAH 6,500 to those who lost their jobs. 3.5 million citizens have already received such assistance. All kinds of social benefits, salaries for doctors, teachers - all these are funded and will further be paid.
5. Assistance to IDPs – ‘You Are at Home’ programme. Three key points of the program are as follows: housing, job, money. We have allotted 500,000 places for temporary accommodation of people. Those families who host displaced citizens will get assistance while paying their utility bills. The state will pay monthly to IDPs UAH 2,000 for adults and UAH 3,000 for children or people with disabilities. We will pay UAH 6,500 to a business hiring a displaced person as a partial salary compensation for this person.
6. Energy Front. We have completely cut off from the energy networks of Russia and Belarus and joined the European energy system ENTSO-E. A historic step through which we have confidence and stability. All types of generation operate. Coal reserves are in storage facilities. We have pumped up 9 billion cubic meters of gas in storage. Gas production for the first 3 months dropped a bit compared to the previous year.
7. Wartime Logistics. The Ukrzaliznytsia JSC has become one of the major companies for the state. Thousands of tons of cargo and hundreds of thousands of people are transported on daily basis. Separate logistics routes have been opened for motor transport. We are building new warehouses on the western border, and we also plan to open new checkpoints there in the near future.
8. World Stands with Ukraine. Three key areas include humanitarian aid, sanctions against the aggressor, financial assistance.
Sanctions are unprecedented. Russia is isolated, but this is certainly not enough. We will continue negotiations with our partners about the embargo on oil purchases, on the ban on Russian ships to enter European ports, on the closure of all western companies in Russia.
9. Restoration of Ukraine. Again, three vectors. The first is a competent calculation of all the losses incurred by our people and our state from this aggression. The second is the freeze and seizure of all Russian funds and assets abroad. The third is the accumulation of funds from partners in the Destroyed Property and Infrastructure Restoration Fund.
We are continuing negotiations to intensify preparations for our accession to the EU. Ukraine should receive the candidate status to get membership in the European Union not sometime in the future, but already now. We are actively working on this.