Donald Trump promised President Zelensky he would work to find an additional Patriot air defense system for Ukraine.


The Third Separate Assault Brigade has received a new anti-aircraft missile system equipped with R-73 missiles. The system is classified, but it is a ground launch platform for R-73 air-to-air guided missiles. It has a guidance system that provides "fire and forget" capability, allowing position changes immediately after firing. The R-73 has an operational range of 20-40km.



The Ukrainian Air Force has received a new batch of F-16s, President Zelenskyy announced during a press briefing. The exact number of new jets was not disclosed.


Ukraine and Russia conducted a prisoner exchange of 175 POWS-for-175 POWS  on March 19, with Ukraine recovering 197 people total, as an additional 22 heavily wounded Ukrainian soldiers were returned outside the formal exchange process. This was one of the largest prisoner exchanges to date, including 166 privates and sergeants and 9 officers.  The soldiers served in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Navy, the National Guard, the Territorial Defense Forces, and the Border Guard Service. There were 31 defenders of Mariupol among them. The United Arab Emirates assisted in facilitating the exchange.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has said his country may veto further European sanctions against Russia claiming they may undermine the peace process in Ukraine.He also said that Slovakia supports Ukraine's accession to the EU on the condition that Kyiv meets the necessary requirements, but he thinks other countries will cause delays, as Ukraine's membership will through the EU’s financial situation into disarray.



Ukrainian units in the Kursk region have received 50 ATVs and 7 boats from the Come Back Alive Foundation.  "Only three days passed from the receipt of an urgent request from our units holding defense in the Kursk region to the purchase and actual delivery of the aid to the troops," the Foundation reported. The aid package is valued at nearly UAH 15 million that were provided via  donations.


US Special Envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg announced that US representatives will mediate between Ukrainian and Russian delegations at upcoming talks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. These "indirect negotiations" will have the Ukrainian and Russian delegates in separate rooms with US officials conducting "shuttle diplomacy" between parties. The Ukrainian delegation is expected to include Defense Minister Rustem Umerov and Deputy Head of the President’s Office Pavlo Palisa. Talks are scheduled to begin on March 24, focusing on achieving a full ceasefire as "the first step toward ending the war." Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov confirmed that Russian-US delegations will meet in Riyadh and initially focus on Black Sea maritime security. The Russian delegation will include Grigory Karasin, head of the Federation Council's foreign affairs committee, and Sergei Beseda, an adviser to the FSB director. "


Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has ordered Ukrainian citizens with "illegal status" to either leave Russian-occupied territories and Russia by September 10, 2025 or "resolve their legal status." The decree affects Ukrainians in Crimea and parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson. "It means applying for Russian citizenship, but not under the simplified procedure for residents of occupied territories, which ended on Dec. 31, 2024," according to Petro Andriushchenko, head of the Center for Occupation Studies. Those without Russian passports are banned from using banks, registering property, and driving.


Russian soldiers published what appears to be an image of  2  Russian soldiers posing with the skull of a child mounted on a rifle. Details on this situation are exceedingly scarce at the moment.


More than $20 million is allocated in the Polish budget for Ukraine's subscription to Starlink satellite Internet in 2025. About $84 million has been spent on terminals and monthly subscriptions between 2022 and 2024, with plans to spend another $20.1 million)by September 2025. Poland purchased 5,000 Starlinks for Ukraine in 2024,  but Ukraine has only received 1,584 of them, with the rest sitting in a warehouse managed by the Institute of Communications.

According to Keir Starmer, about 30 European countries have offered to contribute troops, aircraft, naval vessels, intelligence, or financing as part of a "coalition of the willing." Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan are also participating in the negotiations. UK's Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Armed Forces Luke Pollard told the BBC that talks will focus on logistics, including where assets such as Typhoon jets will be stationed, how they will be refueled and maintained, and how they will integrate with resources provided by other allies. "We want the coalition of volunteers to be a dependable force that will enable Ukraine to secure lasting peace, help it recover and rearm, and prevent Russia from believing it can rearm and start another war.”

Bild reported that Germany is considering transferring control of the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline to the United States, potentially paving the way for renewed Russian gas supplies to Europe, Negotiations on an agreement are already underway, according to the report. Some politicians from the Christian Democratic Union have not ruled out resuming Russian gas purchases once the war in Ukraine ends. MP Thomas Bareis and Jan Heinisch, deputy chairman of the CDU parliamentary group in North Rhine-Westphalia, are two politicians pushing for the continuation of gas purchases through Nordstream-2. German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said that negotiations aimed at reviving the Nord Stream pipelines to restart flows of Russian gas to Germany would be "an absolutely wrong move."

Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Germany will increase its military aid to Ukraine to €7 billion in 2025. This includes €4 billion already planned and an additional €3 billion following the Bundestag's March 18 approval of a €500 billion allocation for defense, infrastructure, EU cooperation, and Ukraine. Scholz stated that Germany will continue to support Ukraine's sovereignty, its EU membership aspirations, and a strong military post-conflict. He also addressed U.S. President Trump's ceasefire proposal, calling it a "first step" aligned with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's ideas.

Germany has updated the list of military equipment delivered to Ukraine. The items delivered are;
24 Mine resistant ambush protected vehicles (MRAP)
Additional ammunition for the Leopard 1 main battle tank
Additional ammunition for the Marder infantry fighting vehicle
3 Gepard self-propelled Anti-aircraft guns (SPAAG)
10,000 rounds of 40 mm ammunition for the Gepard SPAAG
Additional missiles for Iris-T anti-aircraft systems
5,000 rounds of 155 mm artillery shells
2,000 round to 155 mm artillery shells
50 Vector reconnaissance drones with spare parts
30 Gereon tracked unmanned ground vehicles
30 drone detection systems
2 Wisent-1 mine clearing tanks with spare parts
100 H-POMBS mine clearing systems
2 mine clearing plows
556 laser rangefinders
255 infrared binoculars
2 additional border protection vehicles
8,000 120 mm mortar shells
95 MK-556 assault rifles
1,340 HK-416 assault rifles
765,000 first aid kits


Lithuania has proposed January 1, 2030, as the target date for Ukraine's potential EU accession to encourage faster progress. Lithuanian PM Gintautas Paluckas said that this clear timeline would motivate Ukraine to rapidly meet expectations, while also calling for more EU sanctions against Russia. Finnish PM Petteri Orpo supported the idea, stating Ukraine should join as soon as possible, but no later than 2030. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy mentioned that Hungary is the only EU country currently blocking Ukraine's accession.


The European Union has ruled out seizing frozen assets of Russia's central bank, according to a statement posted on the European Council website on March 20. Under EU law, Russian assets must remain frozen until Russia ends its aggressive war against Ukraine and pays for the damage caused. The EU continues to work on increasing pressure on Russia by imposing further sanctions and tightening monitoring.


The €20-40 billion emergency aid package for Ukraine, initially meant to be voluntarily funded by EU member states, has been withdrawn due to budget deficits in some countries. Major donors like France, Spain, and Italy have not supported the initiative. However, EU High Representative Kaja Kallas suggested that the package could still proceed in parts, starting focusing on the most urgent needs such as supplying 2 million artillery shells. The EU also proposed the ReArm Europe/Readiness 2030 project, a €150 billion loan plan for national defense projects, including joint arms procurement, which could benefit both European countries and Ukraine. This initiative aims to reduce costs, would involve Ukrainian manufacturers, and would attract private investment through the European Investment Bank.



The European Commission has allocated an additional €1 billion tranche to Ukraine as part of the G7 loan agreement, with funds covered using proceeds from frozen Russian state assets held in the European Union. European Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis noted that the funds will maintain Ukraine's macroeconomic stability, rebuild infrastructure, and enable it to continue the fight against Russia. With this payment, the total amount of loans provided by the European Commission to Ukraine under this program since the beginning of 2025 has reached €4 billion. The total macro-financial assistance provided by the European Commission to Ukraine has now reached €18.1 billion. The G7 initiative aims to provide approximately €45 billion in financial support to Ukraine.


The U.S. State Department reported that the data on Ukrainian children abducted by Russia remains intact, despite ending funding for the Yale University project that collected this information. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce clarified that the data was never under their control, but assured that it hasn't been deleted or disappeared, contradicting media reports that this information may have been destroyed. Bruce called these claims a “conspiracy theory.” The Yale team tracked the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia using open-source information and shared their findings with Ukrainian authorities, Europol, and the International Criminal Court. The funding cut may impact Ukraine's efforts to recover abducted children.


Norwegian company NAMMO and a Ukrainian defense company have signed a strategic cooperation agreement to expand ammunition production. This agreement will cover a broader range of ammunition, components, and materials, aiming to increase Ukraine's domestic ammunition production. NAMMO is one of Europe's largest ammunition manufacturers and will assist Ukraine, particularly by transferring materials and technology to Ukraine. It has previously helped Ukraine establish 155mm artillery shell production in Ukraine.


President Zelenskyy said that ownership of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant was not discussed during his March 19 phone call with US President Trump. Zelenskyy reiterated that all nuclear facilities in Ukraine, including those in temporarily occupied areas belong to the Ukrainian state and are not private property. He stated that Ukraine and its partners could discuss investment and modernization of these facilities but denied any discussion about transferring ownership to the US.


Quote of the Day:

"It is not the way of the samurai to hesitate. His life is a fleeting moment. To live with hedgehogs and without regret is the true honor of a samurai."

– Takeda Shingen