News|Russia-Ukraine war

Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 386

As the Russia-Ukraine war enters its 386th day, we take a look at the main developments.

A photo made Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2013, over the Bering Strait near Alaska shows a Russian Federation Air Force SU-27 during a simulation of a hijacking of a passenger plane. The exercise had Canadian and U.S. forces from NORAD, working with the Russian Federation forces and saw the Canadians successfully hand off the hijacked plane to Russian fighters over the Bering Strait. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen
A Russian Federation Air Force Su-27 over the Bering Strait in 2013. Two Russian Su-27s intercepted the US Reaper drone over the Black Sea on March 14, 2023 [File: Mark Thiessen/AP]
Published On 16 Mar 2023

Here is the situation as it stands on Thursday, March 16, 2023:

US drone incident

  • The crash of a United States military surveillance drone into the Black Sea after it was intercepted by Russian jet fighters continues to be “investigated”, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
  • Defence chief Lloyd Austin said the US will continue to fly wherever international law allows, after speaking with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu.
  • Russia’s ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, said he told US officials that Moscow would “no longer allow anybody to violate our waters”, Moscow’s state TASS news agency reported.
  • Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the US is “ignoring” the fact that Russia had established air space restrictions around Crimea.
  • Russia’s defence ministry said it would react “proportionately” to any future US “provocations”.

Fighting

  • Ukrainian ground forces shot down a Russian fighter jet near the besieged eastern city of Bakhmut, said Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president’s office.
  • Russian forces have taken control of the village of Zaliznianske and are expanding the encirclement of Bakhmut, head of the Russian mercenary Wagner force Yevgeny Prigozhin said.

Diplomacy

  • Finland expects Turkey to approve its NATO membership bid this week as Finnish President Sauli Niinistö is set to meet his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul on Friday.
  • In a televised meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Russia was fighting “Nazis” in Ukraine and expressed support for Moscow.
  • The International Monetary Fund says its staff made “very good progress” in talks with Ukrainian officials on a set of policies supporting a new lending programme for Ukraine.

 

Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies