Day 385 since the beginning of the war: Russia continues to build up its military. Poland delivers fighter jets to Kyiv. All information in the news blog.
The most important things at a glance
Xi Jinping will visit Russia next week
8.12 a.m.: Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit Russia next week. This was announced by the Chinese Foreign Ministry. Accordingly, Xi will be in Russia from March 20-23. Xi is said to have accepted an invitation from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
According to the Kremlin, the main focus of the talks will be on deepening “strategic cooperation” between the two countries.
Zelenskyi promises liberation of Mariupol – the night
5 o’clock: On the anniversary of the bombing of the Mariupol theater, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the recapture of the city and a war crimes tribunal against Russians. “The day will come and we will liberate Mariupol,” said Zelenskyy in his daily video address on Thursday. At the same time, the 45-year-old recalled the Russian air raid a year ago on the theater in the then heavily contested port city, where many civilians had found shelter at the time. Read the full rundown of what happened that night here.
Russia wants to equip submarines with hypersonic missiles
11.50 p.m.: The Russian Navy wants to equip its submarines with modern hypersonic weapons. “Let no one doubt that we are doing this,” said the head of the Navy, Nikolai Yevmenov, in an interview published in the army newspaper “Krasnaya Zvezda” on Friday. The admiral did not specify a date for the conversion of the submarine fleet to the new missiles.
According to him, there are currently around ten submarine types in service, belonging to four different generations. The modern guided missiles of the Kalibr type have been tested on second-generation submarines. “And today, all submarines in service can be equipped with it, including strategic submarine cruisers.” The next step would then be to upgrade with hypersonic missiles, according to Yevmenov.
Russia has so far introduced three types of hypersonic missiles: the Avangard, the Zirkon and the Kinzhal. Due to their high speed, these are currently considered practically unattainable for air defense. The Zirkon missiles, which can potentially also be equipped with nuclear warheads, are ship-based. So far, however, only one ship in the Russian fleet, the frigate “Fleet Admiral of the Soviet Union Gorshkov”, has been equipped with it.
Majority of Swiss for rapprochement with NATO for the first time
9.50 p.m: In neutral Switzerland, opinion on defense policy has changed since the start of the war in Ukraine. According to a survey commissioned by the Ministry of Defense and published on Thursday, for the first time more than half of the population supports their country’s rapprochement with the transatlantic military alliance NATO.
According to this, 55 percent approved of such a strategy in January, 10 percentage points more than a year earlier. 53 percent were of the opinion that neutrality would allow Switzerland’s military defense to be planned together with NATO. However, two-thirds of those surveyed continued to oppose joining NATO.
The Swiss parliament and government take the position that buyers of Swiss war material should still not be allowed to supply it to third countries that are at war. With reference to neutrality, Bern prevents, among other things, German deliveries of Swiss tank ammunition to Ukraine.
Russia exports grain from occupied territories
9:01 p.m: Russia has again exported grain from the occupied Ukrainian territories by ship. Wheat was exported via the port city of Berdyansk on the Sea of Azov, the Ukrainian General Staff said in its evening report on Thursday. A loaded Russian barge was escorted out of the port by several tugboats.
The Moscow-appointed head of the Zaporizhia region, Yevgeny Balizki, had previously written to the Telegram news channel that the port was being prepared for grain exports. In total, it is planned to export two million tons of grain by ship and rail from the Russian-controlled part of the region.
Large parts of the arable land in the Zaporizhia and Cherson regions of southern Ukraine were conquered by Russia over a year ago. Kiev has repeatedly denounced the Russian practice of exporting and selling grain from the occupied territories. Ukraine is missing out on important export earnings.
