Nato member Romania finds ‘drone fragments’ on farm near Ukraine border
Nato member Romania said it had found fragments of what appeared to be a drone on a farm near the river Danube and the border with Ukraine late on Thursday.
Russia has been striking targets in western and central Ukraine with missile and drone attacks conducted at night.
“In the evening of 28 March 2024, fragments that seem to come from an aerial device (drone) were identified on an agricultural land in Insula Mare a Brailei,” Romania’s defence ministry said in a statement.
“The Ministry of National Defence, together with specialized structures within the National Defence System, public order and national security, is conducting an investigation of the incident.”
Nato has a mutual defence commitment if one of its members comes under attack, but the Atlantic alliance and Romanian officials have said following similar such incidents in the past that they have found no evidence of any deliberate attack targeting Romania.
Key events
One person was killed and two were injured in the Russian city of Belgorod as a result of a Ukrainian drone attack, Belgorod Region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Friday.
Dmytro Kuleba, the Ukrainian foreign minister, said he held “sincere” talks with his counterpart in India and “agreed to restore the level of cooperation between our countries that existed prior to the full-scale war launched by Russia.”
In New Delhi, I had sincere and comprehensive talks with @DrSJaishankar about Ukrainian-Indian bilateral relations, the situation in our regions, and global security.
We paid specific attention to the Peace Formula and next steps on the path of its implementation.
We also… pic.twitter.com/2aLQQBuqAJ
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) March 29, 2024
Russian prosecutors have asked the justice ministry to label Alla Pugacheva, the queen of Soviet pop music, as a “foreign agent”, Reuters reported citing the state RIA news agency.
Ukraine receives $1.5billion (£1.19billion) in funding under World Bank programme
Ukraine has received a $1.5 billion tranche of funding under a World Bank programme, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Friday, helping it pay for its budget and social spending as it defends itself against the Russian invasion.
Ukraine is reliant on financial aid from its Western partners but foreign financing dwindled in the first two months of this year, and a U.S. aid package has been blocked by Republicans in Congress for months.
The new block of World Bank aid was funded by Britain and Japan, Shmyhal said.
“984 million dollars come from Japan and 516 million dollars from the UK. The funds will cover budget spending for social and humanitarian needs and reconstruction,” he wrote on X.
Ukraine has received 1.5 billion dollars from @WorldBank as part of the Development Policy Loan (DPL). 984 million dollars come from Japan and 516 million dollars from the UK. The funds will cover budget spending for social and humanitarian needs and reconstruction. We are…
— Denys Shmyhal (@Denys_Shmyhal) March 29, 2024
Russia said on Friday that major powers needed a new approach to North Korea, accusing the United States and its allies of ratcheting up military tensions in Asia and seeking to “strangle” the reclusive state.
Since Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Moscow has gone out of its way to parade a renaissance of its relationship – including military ties – with Pyongyang.
Washington says North Korea has supplied Russia with missiles that it is using against Ukraine, assertions which have been dismissed by the Kremlin and Pygonyang.
For Putin, who says Russia is locked in an existential battle with the west over Ukraine, courting Kim allows him to needle Washington and its Asian allies while securing a deep supply of artillery for the Ukraine war.
Ukraine claims to have shot down 84 aerial targets during the Russian drone and missile offensive.
The defence Ministry of Ukraine said it had shot down 58 Shahed UAVs, 17 Kh-101 cruise missiles, five Kh-59 guided air missiles and four Iskander-K cruise missiles.
Overnight, russia launched another massive air attack on Ukrainian fuel and energy facilities.
The enemy attacked Ukraine with 60 Shahed UAVs and 39 missiles of various types.
Ukrainian air defenders shot down 84 aerial targets, including:
• 58 Shahed UAVs
• 17 Kh-101 cruise… pic.twitter.com/Sn1HxR5rH2— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) March 29, 2024
Ukraine’s military will need to mobilise fewer people than initially expected to fend off Russia’s two-year-old invasion, Kyiv’s top general said on Friday.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in December that his military had proposed mobilising up to 500,000 more Ukrainians into the armed forces as Russia stepped up attacks along the 1,000-km (621-mile) front line.
Commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi, who was appointed last month, said in an interview with Ukrainian media published on Friday that the figure had been “significantly reduced” after a review of resources.
He did not name a new figure. “We expect that we will have enough people capable of defending their motherland,” he told the Ukrinform news agency. “I am talking not only about the mobilized but also about volunteer fighters.”
Despite the war, the Ukrainian government continues to spend money on the Vernadsky base, an Antarctic research station.
Some Ukrainians believe government funds would be better spent on the war in Ukraine.
But its president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, appreciates that the Vernadsky base reminds the world that Ukraine is a global player in science, which contributes to our understanding of the climate crisis, and not just a victim of Russia’s invasion. Read more about those working on the base:
Nato member Romania finds ‘drone fragments’ on farm near Ukraine border
Nato member Romania said it had found fragments of what appeared to be a drone on a farm near the river Danube and the border with Ukraine late on Thursday.
Russia has been striking targets in western and central Ukraine with missile and drone attacks conducted at night.
“In the evening of 28 March 2024, fragments that seem to come from an aerial device (drone) were identified on an agricultural land in Insula Mare a Brailei,” Romania’s defence ministry said in a statement.
“The Ministry of National Defence, together with specialized structures within the National Defence System, public order and national security, is conducting an investigation of the incident.”
Nato has a mutual defence commitment if one of its members comes under attack, but the Atlantic alliance and Romanian officials have said following similar such incidents in the past that they have found no evidence of any deliberate attack targeting Romania.
Romanian authorities found fragments of what appeared to be a drone on a farm near the river Danube and border with Ukraine on Thursday evening, the defence ministry said in a statement.
Energy facilities in six Ukrainian regions attacked in Russian barrage, PM says
Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has said in a statement that energy facilities in six Ukrainian regions had been attacked in Russian missile and drone attacks.
The barrage hit thermal and hydro power plants in central and western Ukraine, power grid operator Ukrenergo said on Friday.
Shmyhal said Ukraine needs more air defence systems to secure critical infrastructure and protect the population.
Ukrainian state-run Naftogaz oil and gas firm also said its facilities had come under attack on Friday morning.
“(Russian attacks) targeted Naftogaz Group’s facilities, but there was no serious damage,” it said in a statement, giving no more details.
Opening summary
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Russian missile and drone attacks overnight damaged Ukrainian thermal and hydro power plants, electricity grid operator Ukrenergo said on Friday. There were emergency shutdowns in the south-eastern Dnipropetrovsk region. The Dnipropetrovsk governor, Serhii Lysak, said “critical infrastructure” was bombed and a man taken to hospital. Explosions were heard in Ukraine’s Ivano-Frankivsk and Khmelnytskyi regions and the city of Dnipro after Russian cruise missiles were spotted, national media outlet Suspilne reported.
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Poland scrambled planes as Ukraine came under missile attack on Friday morning, the Polish defence force said. The operational command said Polish and allied aircraft were activated due to “intense activity of long-range aviation of the Russian Federation” related to missile strikes against targets in Ukraine.
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A Russian SU-35 Flanker fighter jet has crashed into the sea off Sevastopol, Crimea. Footage online showed a jet on fire, spiralling into the ocean and exploding. The Russian-installed governor of the illegally occupied region, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said on Thursday the pilot ejected and was picked up by rescuers but gave no details as to the cause of the crash.
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Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president, told the speaker of the US House of Representatives during a phone call on Thursday that it was vital for Congress to pass a new military aid package for Ukraine. Mike Johnson, the speaker, has held up a bill for months that would supply $60bn in military and financial aid.
“We recognise that there are differing views in the House of Representatives on how to proceed, but the key is to keep the issue of aid to Ukraine as a unifying factor,” Zelenskiy said. -
Zelenskiy said he briefed Johnson about the situation on the battlefield and also spoke about “the dramatic increase in Russia’s air terror”. The Ukrainian military later said that its top commander, Oleksander Syrskyi, spoke to the US chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Charles Brown, about battlefield issues.
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Zelenskiy, in a CBS interview, has warned that Vladimir Putin will push Russia’s war “very quickly” on to Nato soil unless he is stopped in Ukraine. Zelenskiy acknowledged that his troops are not prepared to defend against another imminent major Russian offensive, and highlighted the urgency for American Patriot missile defence systems and more artillery.
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The US is telling American companies making and selling parts that can be used in missiles and drones to stop shipping their goods to more than 600 foreign parties who might divert them to Russia. The parts have been found in Russian munitions recovered in Ukraine.
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A Russian court on Thursday sentenced journalist Mikhail Feldman to two years in prison for denouncing Moscow’s full-scale military offensive on Ukraine.
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Against the backdrop of war in Ukraine, several central and eastern European countries began marking on Thursday the 20th anniversary of the largest expansion of Nato when formerly socialist countries became members.