LIVETEXT War in Ukraine, Day 765 | Attacks in Several Ukrainian Regions. Kiev Strikes Back in Russia’s Belgorod Region

The figure of 500,000 mobilizations, originally proposed, has been “significantly reduced”, said the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Sîrski, on Friday, March 29, in an interview with the Ukrinform agency, reports The Kyiv Independent.

Sîrski says the figure has been revised and “we expect to have enough people capable of defending themselves,” though he did not say what the new estimates are.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in December that the army, then led by Valeri Zalujnii, proposed mobilizing 450,000-500,000 additional conscripts to ensure sufficient rotation of frontline troops.

The Defense Forces of Ukraine announce that, during the night, they destroyed 84 missiles and drones out of the 99 launched by Russia, Ukrainska Pravda reports.

“On the night of March 29, 2024, the enemy launched a powerful air and missile attack on fuel and energy facilities in Ukraine, using various types of missiles and attack drones,” Air Force Commander Nikolai Oleschiuk said.

In total, “99 air attack weapons” were launched over Ukrainian territory, including 60 Shahed drones, three air ballistic missiles, two Iskander-M ballistic missiles, nine X-59 aircraft guided missiles, four Iskander cruise missiles -K and 21 X-101/X-555 cruise missiles.

As a result of the attacks launched by Russia on Friday, March 29, the energy infrastructure was damaged in six regions of Ukraine, and emergency interruptions of services were applied in some, announced Prime Minister Denis Shmyhal and the Ministry of Energy, Pravda reports.

“There is damage to the energy infrastructure in Dnipropetrovsk, Vinnytsia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Cherkassy and Chernivtsi regions. In some regions, emergency shutdowns were applied,” the prime minister said.

In this context, Shmyhal added that Ukraine needs more air defense systems to secure critical infrastructure and protect the population.

Since October 2023, when they launched their latest offensive, Russian forces have captured a total of 505 square kilometers of Ukraine, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based think tank, said in its report on 28 March, reports The Kyiv Independent.

From January 1 to March 28, Moscow’s forces expanded their territorial control by almost 100 square kilometers, ISW notes.

Due to material constraints, Ukrainian forces have limited ability to effectively conduct defensive operations, which gives Russia the flexibility to pursue various strategies in their offensive maneuvers. This presents the potential for Russian forces to make significant operational gains in the future, ISW adds.

“The arrival of sufficient and regular Western security assistance and the resolution of Ukrainian manpower challenges would reduce these opportunities for Russian forces,” the American think tank also points out.

Several Ukrainian cities were targeted by attacks on the morning of March 29. The strikes targeted almost all regions of Ukraine, including Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk in the west of the country, The Kyiv Independent reports.

Several explosions were heard in Dnipro, the capital of Dnipropetrovsk region. As a result of the attacks, many energy installations were damaged, in total, six people were injured in the region.

Russian forces launched waves of drones and missiles overnight, including Tu-95 bombers from the Russian city of Murmansk, MiG-31K jets from the Savasleyka airbase in the Nizhny Novgorod region and ballistic missiles from Crimea, the Ukrainian Air Force said.

At least 10 drones were shot down over the Dnipropetrovsk region.

Explosions were also reported in Ivano-Frankivsk and Khmelnytskyi regions.

The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, Viacheslav Gladkov, announced Friday morning the destruction of 15 targets over the region overnight, Russian state news agency Interfax reported.

“Our air defense system operated over Belgorod and the Belgorod region – 15 air targets were shot down near the city. According to preliminary information, there were no casualties,” Gladkov wrote on his Telegram channel.

He specified that, in Belgorod, the windows of 37 apartments in 17 buildings were broken, and shell fragments damaged a balcony. The windows of the Belgorod arena and gymnasium were also damaged. According to preliminary data, 12 cars were damaged by shrapnel.

At the same time, in the village of Dubovoye, the roof of a private household was damaged, and in the village of Repnoye, a car was hit by shrapnel.

Russian forces attacked the border area of ​​the Sumy region 28 times on Thursday, March 28, targeting 12 communities, the regional military administration announced, as quoted by The Kyiv Independent.

The attacks caused 167 explosions in 24 hours. More than 50 of the explosions occurred in Bilopillia, which was hit by artillery, mortar and rocket launcher attacks.

No casualties or damage to civilian infrastructure were reported.

The Russian attack on the Kamianske district of the Dnipropetrovsk region took place in the early hours of Friday, March 29, damaging critical infrastructure and wounding one man, the region’s governor, Sergey Lisak, reported, The Kyiv Independent reports.

The injured man was hospitalized and is in serious condition. No other casualties were recorded.

Critical infrastructure facilities were also damaged in the attack, with locals reporting power outages.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said in a statement on Thursday that the construction of defensive lines and structures continues in all areas of the front.

“Soldiers from the engineering troops of the Army Support Forces are almost non-stop digging trenches, trenches, anti-tank ditches, building shelters and equipping other fortifications,” the Ukrainian army said in a statement.

According to juvenile prosecutors, 537 children were killed as a result of the war started by the Russian Federation in Ukraine.

“At least 1,806 children have fallen victim in Ukraine as a result of the large-scale armed aggression of the Russian Federation. By the morning of March 28, 2024, according to the official information of juvenile prosecutors, 537 children died and at least another 1,269 were injured,” the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine reported.

The most affected were children from the regions of Donetsk – 524, Kharkiv – 343, Kherson – 149, Kyiv – 130, Dnipropetrovsk – 125, Mykolaiv – 103 and Zaporozhye – 100.

The Ukrainian army managed to stabilize the situation on the front, given that it is likely that the Russian Federation will prepare a new offensive in the near future, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday, reports CBS News.

“We have stabilized the situation. It is better than two or three months ago, when we had a big shortage of artillery ammunition, different types of weapons. We saw absolutely no big, huge counteroffensive from the Russian side. The Russians did not succeed,” said Volodymyr Zelensky.

According to the president, Ukraine “now needs help”. He announced the approach of the Russian offensive and admitted that the Russian troops that invaded the territory of Ukraine destroyed “some villages” in the east of the country.

Volodymyr Zelensky added that Ukraine “does not have shells and many other things” and stressed that the Ukrainian military “is not currently ready to defend itself against another major Russian offensive, which is expected in the coming months.”

The leader from Kiev stated that the offensive of the Russian army will take place at the end of May or in June, but without specifying the direction of the attack.

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