March 16, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

At least one person was killed and seven others wounded in Ukraine's Donetsk region on Thursday as a result of Russian shelling, the Donetsk Regional Prosecutor's Office said in a Telegram post.

Russian forces fired on the city of Kostiantynivka and several villages with artillery and Uragan multiple rocket launchers, the prosecutor's office said, adding that the shelling hit "the railway station, market and private houses."

The woman who died was 50 years old and living in Pivdenne, where one other person was hurt, according to the prosecutor's office. The six other people who were injured were in Kostiantynivka, including one Polish citizen, it added.

Shell fragments damaged more than 30 residential buildings, the prosecutor's office said. 

Ukrainian officials have held a number of discussions with leaders of other countries today. Here's what they spoke about:

Separately, UK Foreign Minister James Cleverly made an official state visit to Moldova, where he said he believes that the best way to protect the country from a Russian attack is not by sending it military support, but by protecting Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with Latvia's Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins in Kyiv Thursday, Zelensky's office said in a statement. 

Zelensky thanked Latvia for the "powerful political, defense, financial and humanitarian support since the first days of the full-scale Russian invasion," his office said.

The Ukrainian president noted the Latvian government's recent approval of a new military assistance package. The defense support provided by Latvia to Ukraine has already reached 1% of the small European country's GDP, according to Zelensky's office. 

The two leaders also discussed the situation on the front line, and Zelensky emphasized the importance of coordinating efforts between Ukraine's allies to make sure Kyiv's military is supplied with the weaponry it needs in the fight.

The parties also discussed the negotiations for Ukraine's accession to the European Union and preparations for the NATO Summit in Vilnius, according to the statement. 

Zelensky praised Latvia's advocacy for using international legal mechanisms to punish Russia for alleged war crimes in Ukraine, and for finding means to compensate the country "for the damage caused by Russia," the president's office said.

Earlier Thursday, Karins met with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal. 

Negotiations about a possible conversation between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are ongoing, but it is too early to say whether a conversation will actually take place, according to a Ukrainian presidential adviser. 

"We can't say for sure, because negotiations are ongoing," Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said on national television Thursday.

The Ukrainian president is open to conversations with other leaders as well, not just Xi, "in order to explain the nature of the war and to say why, without taking into account Ukraine's position, this war cannot be ended," Podolyak said. 

Earlier on Thursday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said he had a telephone conversation with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang. The two discussed Ukraine's peace plan and "the significance of the principle of territorial integrity," Kuleba said in a post on his official Twitter account.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the decisions countries make to provide Ukraine with military aid are “sovereign decisions.”  

His comments come after Poland announced Thursday that the country would be sending four of its MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine in the coming days.

Blinken gave no indication that Poland’s decision would change the Biden administration’s position against sending fighter jets to Ukraine right now.

Blinken said it is a mistake to focus on any one weapons system at any one time. He spoke to the vast nature of military resources that Ukraine needs including air defenses, artillery, ammunition and armored vehicles.

“Secretary Austin has, you know, led a very, very successful process of bringing together dozens of countries to help find and coordinate that assistance,” he added.

Ahead of the Black Sea grain agreement expiring this weekend, the United Nations emphasized that the deal states it would be extended for 120 days — even though Russia said it agreed to a 60-day extension of the deal after negotiations in Geneva on Monday.  

The Black Sea Grain Initiative is an agreement between Ukraine and Russia, brokered by the UN and Turkey, that was established in July 2022 to guarantee safe passage for ships carrying grain and oilseeds — some of Ukraine's most important exports.   

Russian state-run news agency RIA, citing Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko, reported on Monday that Russia and the UN had agreed to a 60-day extension of the grain deal after the negotiations in Geneva.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that the addition of 60 days was a “goodwill gesture” on Russia's part when asked by reporters why the deal had not been extended by 120 days.  

When asked Thursday about the difference in the duration of the extension between Russian and the UN versions, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that it may be a display of “UN’s incompetence.”  

The spokesperson stressed that the UN doesn't direct the talks or terms to the deal. The Russian Federation, Ukraine and Turkey are the parties involved in the agreement, with the UN as a witness, Dujarric said.

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar told reporters on Wednesday that Ankara hopes to resolve the issue in a positive way “as soon as possible,” according to Turkish state media Anadolu. 

“We started negotiations with the idea of extending the grain corridor for another 120 days in line with the initial version of the agreement. Our friends with the Russian and Ukrainian sides held talks at the technical level. We also continue our talks at the ministerial level,” he said.  

The US believes Russia has recovered some debris in the Black Sea from the downed US surveillance drone, a US official familiar with the matter told CNN. The official described the recovered wreckage as pieces of fiberglass or small bits of the MQ-9 Reaper drone. 

CNN reported on Wednesday that Russia had reached the location where the US surveillance drone went down in the Black Sea, approximately 70-80 miles southwest of Crimea.

But the Biden administration downplayed the significance of the drone wreckage or the potential to glean any sensitive intelligence from the remains of the aircraft. 

After the collision between the US drone and the Russian fighter jets early Tuesday morning, the drone operators took steps to erase the sensitive software of the drone before it fell into the Black Sea, according to US officials.

“Whatever's left … that's floating will probably be flight control surfaces, that kind of thing. Probably nothing of real intrinsic value to them in terms of terms of reengineering or anything like that,” Kirby said.

The drone landed in water that may be nearly a mile deep, Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Mark Milley said at a press conference on Wednesday. 

“That's US property and, and we'll, we'll leave it that at this point, but it probably broke up. There's probably not a lot to recover, frankly,” he said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Thursday about the latest at the front lines around the eastern city of Bakhmut, Zelensky said in a post on his official Twitter account.

"As always, we have concrete results in increasing defense and economic support for Ukraine. Appreciate UK's unwavering position," he added. 

The stunning aerial video of a Russian jet buzzing and then apparently hitting a US drone over the Black Sea vividly shows how the war in Ukraine could spin out of control.

Clearly, the showdown, which has resulted in angry rhetoric between Washington and Moscow but nothing more, would have been far worse if the US Reaper drone had been a manned aircraft.

The fact a drone was involved has allowed both sides to calibrate their language to avoid an escalation, but the reverberations of the incident are still likely to have prolonged consequences.

The US and its allies are pumping billions of dollars of ammunition and sophisticated arms into Ukraine to be used against Russian forces, prompting worries that a miscalculation or incident could cause direct clashes between Russian and NATO assets.

And one of the most alarming aspects of the drone downing is that it took place in international airspace – not over Russian territory or the battlefield – and thus underscores how US and Russian forces could come into contact even outside the war zone.

Senior Russian defense officials approved the harassment of the drone, CNN’s Natasha Bertrand and Kylie Atwood reported Wednesday, citing two US officials familiar with intelligence on the incident.

So it’s plausible this escalation was a deliberate decision to send some kind of message to the US, or to try to deter US intelligence gathering near Ukraine.

Russia has complained that the US drone infringed its self-declared air rules over the Black Sea. But this is a risible position, given its own huge violation of international law with an unprovoked invasion of a sovereign state.

Regardless, the footage of the high-speed airborne clash shows that as long as the Ukraine war goes on — and the West is involved, even indirectly — the possibility for escalation that expands the conflict disastrously will constantly exist.

It will take careful management in both Washington and Moscow to lower the risk.

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