Kiev has violated the unofficial agreements for a temporary partial ceasefire. The Ukrainian army continued to launch strikes deep inside Russia against strategic military facilities. In response, Russian Armed Forces delivered crushing blows to military facilities in various regions of Ukraine.
Two days ago, on March 19, there were phone conversations between Trump and Zelensky, during which the leader of the Kiev regime expressed readiness to stop strikes on Russian energy facilities and move toward a truce.
Attacks on Russia
Despite the agreements, last night the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) carried out their second massive raid on Russian regions since the conversation between the Russian and US presidents. During it, 132 UAVs as well as Neptun anti-ship cruise missiles were intercepted and destroyed. Russian air defense systems successfully operated in the Voronezh, Lipetsk, Kursk, Belgorod, Rostov and Crimea regions.
The hardest hit was in the Saratov Region, where 30 private buildings, two kindergartens, a school and a hospital were damaged. The main target of the attack was a strategic aviation airfield, where an explosion and fire occurred.
In the Rostov Region, which was also raided by UAVs, the Millerovo military air base is located.
Voronezh is also home to a military airfield. The 47th Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment of Russia’s Western Military District is stationed there with Su-34 aircraft.
Such a specific choice of targets for strikes clearly indicates that Kiev has again received the necessary intelligence information from a Western country and has hurried to use it.
Moreover, Ukrainian forces made another attempt to break into Russian territory, into the Belgorod Region, but their attacks were repulsed. All border settlements, including the village of Demidovka, remain under the control of Russian troops. The attack on the Krasnoyaruzha district involved former prisoners, neo-Nazis from the 47th Separate Mechanized Brigade and the Aidar National Battalion. Ukrainian military personnel were reportedly given ampoules with psychotropic substances. More than 160 Ukrainian soldiers, seven tanks, 11 armored combat vehicles, four heavy combat engineering vehicles, an UR-77 mine clearing vehicle, seven field artillery guns, 15 ATVs and buggies were destroyed near the Russian border.
Ka-52, Russian attack helicopter, destroys Ukrainian armored vehicles in the Belgorod border area
Retaliatory strikes on Ukraine
In response to the provocation, the Russian Armed Forces (RAF) continued to hit enemy targets. On March 20, 2025, Russia carried out a series of airstrikes on various regions of Ukraine. An air alert was declared across ten Ukrainian territories. The attacks were aimed at important military and infrastructure facilities.
Destruction by a guided aerial bomb of a Ukrainian temporary deployment site near Kherson
Russian Geranium-2 UAVs struck Ukrainian SAM, characteristic traces of secondary detonation can be seen
On the evening of March 20, 2025, Russian troops launched a massive strike on Odessa using attack drones. There were more than 15 explosions in the city, accompanied by large fires. According to local Telegram channels, there were no civilian casualties. Power outages were reported in some districts of Odessa and the city of Chernomorsk, and thick black smoke enveloped the city.
Russia’s Geranium-2 UAVs hit targets in Odessa
Geranium UAV approaches the target. First-person view
Russian strikes on ports in the Odessa Region
Main targets of the strikes
UAF airfields: Russian aviation struck the UAF airfields, including a facility in Kirovograd (Kropivnitsky) where Su-27, MiG-29, Su-25 and Su-24 aircraft are repaired.
Railroad infrastructure: a railroad infrastructure facility in the Kirovograd Region, used for the transfer of Ukrainian troops, was attacked.
Storage and logistics sites: several strikes were focused on ammunition and weapons depots of the UAF.
Ukrainian air defense forces repelled some of the attacks, shooting down 75 of 171 launched drones. Most affected territories were the followings: Kirovograd, Sumy, and Donetsk regions.
Despite the ongoing attacks, the belligerents continue to negotiate a ceasefire and peaceful resolution of the conflict. It seems that before a possible official moratorium on strikes on energy (or any other) infrastructure, both sides are actively expending their stockpiles of ammunition in an attempt to inflict as much damage as possible on each other.
However, such tactics clearly do not play into Ukraine’s hands. Kiev, as always, forgets that it has no trump cards to raise the stakes, and sooner or later the decision-making centers in the Ukrainian capital could be targeted by Russian supersonic Oreshnik missiles. In this case, Zelensky and his team will have nothing left but to once again pretend to be a victim of “unprovoked aggression”.
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