Ihor Zhdanov, Information Defence

Informational Defence of Ukraine provides a daily review of the military-political situation in Ukraine, morning of March 27th, based on an analysis of open sources.

1. The russian occupiers have not achieved success in any of the operational areas and have sustained heavy losses as a result of counterattacks by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in the Donetsk direction, the enemies focused their efforts on maintaining the occupied position and preparing for offensive attacks.

The enemy continued to attempt to storm Mariupol, launched air strikes and carried out artillery shelling of civilian and military infrastructure. They tried to advance in order to occupy the central part of the city.

The main efforts of the enemy continue to focus on the capture of the settlements of Popasna, Rubizhne, and preparations for the attack on Severodonetsk.

In the Kharkiv region, the Ukrainian army liberated several settlements in the direction of Mala Rohan’.

The total combat losses of the enemy from 24.02 to 27.03 are approximately these:

Only in the Donetsk and Luhansk directions, Ukrainian soldiers destroyed 8 tanks, 8 units of armoured and 3 enemy vehicles, one mortar. During the day on March 26th, defenders of Mariupol from the regiment of “Azov” unit destroyed 3 tanks and 1 BMD of the occupiers. 

2. Information summaries and assessments of foreign and Ukrainian intelligence.

According to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine, the russian armed forces often face the problem of the impossibility of restoring equipment after "deconservation" from warehouses. Optical devices and electronics containing precious metals were completely stolen from the combat vehicles.

In particular, according to intelligence, the 4th Panzer Division of the russian federation found that out of 10 "canned" tanks, only one is in more or less working condition. The rest are completely dismantled, some of them do not even have engines. At present, the plans to transfer equipment removed from the storage place to the front have been effectively thwarted.

According to the CIA, the commander of the 13th Panzer Regiment of the 4th Panzer Division of the russian federation committed suicide (he shot himself) because of this situation.

According to UK intelligence, russia will continue air and artillery bombardment of cities to limit its losses and demoralise defence forces. This is stated in the latest intelligence review of the UK Ministry of Defence.

According to intelligence, russia is likely to continue to use "its powerful firepower in urban areas" as it seeks to limit its already significant losses at the cost of further civilian casualties.

russian troops are concentrating their efforts trying to surround Ukrainian forces in the Donbas area. This is stated in the intelligence review of the UK Ministry of Defence.

“russian forces appear to be concentrating their efforts to try to surround Ukrainian forces directly in front of the separatist areas in the east, advancing from Kharkiv in the north and Mariupol in the south,” the statement said.

As for the north of Ukraine, the battlefield there remains largely static, and local Ukrainian counterattacks are thwarting russia's attempts to reorganise its forces.

3. The russian occupiers continue to violate international humanitarian law.

russian aggressors continue to kill Ukrainian children. According to the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine in Telegram, as of the morning of March 26th, on the 31st day of a full-scale armed aggression of russia, 136 children have already died.

199 children were injured. The most affected children were in the Kyiv region - 64, the Kharkiv region - 44, the Donetsk region - 50, the Chernihiv region - 38, the Mykolaiiv region - 28, the Luhansk region - 25, the Zaporizhzhia region - 17, the Kherson region - 20, Kyiv City - 16, the Zhytomyr region – 15, and the Sumy region - 14.

Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova has said that since the beginning of russia's war against Ukraine, 12 journalists have died due to the invaders’ attacks. 10 journalists have been wounded and 6 have taken away in an unknown direction.

According to the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations, the occupiers committed crimes against at least 56 members of the media, 15 of whom were citizens of other countries.

The victims of the russian invaders were 4 UK citizens, 2 Czech citizens, 2 Danish citizens, 2 UAE citizens, 1 Swiss citizen, and 2 US citizens, one of whom died, also one Irish citizen and one russian citizen.

russian invaders continue to attack civilians daily. On March 25th because of hostile actions 41 people in the Mykolaiiv area were wounded.

The russians damaged 11 houses in the Luhansk region, a school in a village near Lysychansk, and an ambulance station in Severodonetsk was in fire.

During Friday, gas supplies were restored to more than 6,000 Ukrainian consumers, but 330,000 Ukrainians remain without access.

Peaceful resistance of Ukrainian citizens continues. Thousands of residents of the Chonobyl satellite – Slavutych organized a peaceful rally against the russian occupiers on the morning of March 26th. They were holding yellow and blue flags, singing the anthem of Ukraine and shouting "putin is a scumbag", “russian ship go to f*ck”, “Glory to the nation! Death to the enemies!”, “Slavutych is Ukraine”.

Unarmed people went straight to enemy armoured carriers and armed combatants, who started firing into the air. Unarmed people were shouting "Go home!", “We do not wait you here!”

One resident of Slavutych was wounded during a rally against the russian aggressors, there are also wounded in the territorial defence units, the mayor of the city, who was previously captured by the invaders, was released by the occupiers.

The abduction of civilians and their hostages continue. In Mariupol, the russian occupiers forcibly removed doctors and patients from the city hospital No1 in the unknown direction.

It is reported that there were about 700 people on the territory of the hospital, but it is unknown exactly how many Mariupol residents were deported.

In general, according to Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko, the occupiers deported 20,000-30,000 people from the city to the occupied territories or to russia.

4. Under attacks by the russian occupiers, the evacuation through humanitarian corridors continues.

According to Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, 10 evacuation corridors were confirmed on March 26th: in the Donetsk, Kyiv, and Luhansk regions. All 10 corridors functioned successfully.

331 people traveled from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia by their own transport. Those evacuees who were detained by the occupiers in Berdiansk also arrived in Zaporizhzhia.

5,208 people were evacuated to places of safety on March 26th.

5. International support and assistance to Ukraine.

Political support for Ukraine. US President Joe Biden said in Warsaw that russian president putin cannot remain in power: “A dictator who is trying to build an empire will never be able to destroy people's love of freedom. Brutal force will never erase their will to freedom.

Ukraine will never be a victory for russia. Free people refuse to live in a hopeless and dark world. There will be a better, brighter future ahead, built on rules and according to democracy principles, a future full of hope and light, dignity and decency, freedom and opportunity. For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power”.

In his speech, Joe Biden called on world democracies to unite to fight dictators and the violence of authoritarian regimes. He assured that the United States and the Western world are on the side of Ukraine.

The American president addressed the citizens in Warsaw during the russian occupiers launching missile strikes on Lviv.

The United States and Ukraine are launching a 2 + 2 security dialogue at the level of foreign and defence officials.

This was announced by Ukrainian ministers after the meeting with US colleagues.

Military aid to Ukraine continues. The first large consignment of anti-tank weapons arrived in Ukraine, which the German government confirmed to purchase. The German edition Bild reports about the completion of the delivery.

This is a light RPG “Matador” for close combat, which, according to the German manufacturer, is able to pierce the armour of any tank that is in service with russia - depending on the place of impact. 2650 units arrived in Ukraine. Total procurement is 5,100 units; the remaining 2,450 are currently being manufactured and will arrive in Ukraine in small batches by the end of May.

The purchase price reportedly amounted to 25 million euros.

Financial Aid. According to CNN, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Ukraine would receive "additional assistance worth $ 100 million."

It will be designed to “increase the capacity of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine to ensure the necessary border security, support civilian law enforcement functions and protect critical state infrastructure in the face of a deliberate, unprovoked and unjustified attacks by president putin.”

6. Provocations and fakes of russian aggressors.

The Centre for Combating Disinformation at the National Security and Defence Council urges German-language media not to disseminate russian propaganda and lies about the Ukrainian “Azov” unit, which is currently defending Mariupol.

It is for this purpose, the associations of Ukrainians who are fighting for their state and freedom with the Nazis-racist propagandists have switched to the European information space and especially to Germany.

The Azov Battalion was created in 2014 from volunteers who were fighting in the Donbas. Today, the Azov is a separate detachment of the National Guard of Ukraine.

The National Security and Defence Council notes that comparing Ukrainians to Nazis is an outdated method of the kremlin to manipulate historical memory and make fake analogies.

On March 26th, 2022, at the exit from Kharkiv (towards Chuhuiiv), a monument in the form of a Menorah at the entrance to “The Drobytskyi Yar” memorial complex was damaged as a result of artillery shelling of the russian Armed Forces.

According to the Kharkiv State Archives, between 16,000 and 20,000 Holocaust victims were killed there.

In Kharkov, the nuclear subcritical installation “Neutron Source” came under russian fire again. It is not possible to estimate the extent of the damage due to the fighting that does not stop in the area of the nuclear installation

According to Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, the occupiers have planned a demonstration - they are going to forcibly deport ethnic Armenians, Azerbaijanis, and Meskhetian Turks from Kherson to the temporarily occupied Crimea.

7. Political and socio-economic situation in russia, the impact of international sanctions on it.

New sanctions are being imposed on russia. The United States is threatening sanctions on individuals and legal entities that help russia avoid Western sanctions. The Financial Times has stated this with reference to Jake Sullivan, the US National Security Adviser.

He said Washington was ready to expand its network of economic and financial sanctions around the world to include “secondary” sanctions.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba called on consumers from all over the world to boycott Auchan, Alcampo, Leroy Merlin and Decathlon for refusing to leave the russian market.

As a result of sanctions against russia, leading international campaigns are leaving the russian market. Since the beginning of the russian invasion of Ukraine, more than 450 international companies have announced their withdrawal from russia. The leading countries in this indicator are Germany and the United Kingdom.

Forbes has given information regarding the percentage of foreign capital in 250 top russian business companies (in USD – see the picture).

The smallest share of companies that have left putin's russia is from France and China. This is evidenced by data from Yale University and Forbes analysis.

Many corporate giants decided to limit their activities in russia only after harsh public condemnation. For example, McDonald's, Coca-Cola and Starbucks.

At the same time, a number of global companies continue to do business and pay taxes in russia. This means, in fact, they are financing the military actions launched by russia in Ukraine.

The stagnation of the russian stock market continues. The Central Bank has decided that russian shares, russian corporate regional and municipal bonds, as well as foreign shares will be admitted to the next trading on the Moscow Stock Exchange.

Previously, only the 33 most valid paper securities were available for auction. As in previous days, bidding has been banned, including a ban on short selling, which prevents traders from making money by falling the value of securities.

Sanctions continue to negatively affect the russian economy. The US President Joe Biden has said that after the imposition of Western sanctions, russia's economy will  be halved in the coming years.

The largest banking group in the Netherlands, ING Bank, has decided to abandon any new business contacts with any russian or Belarusian companies around the world.