Here is the situation on Monday, March 10:
Contents
Fighting
- Russia’s Ministry of Defence claimed its forces took control of the village of Kostyantynopil in southern Ukraine’s east Donetsk region. Three other villages – Malaya Loknya, Cherkasskoye Porechnoye and Kositsa – in the Kursk border region were also recaptured by Moscow, the ministry said.
- The ministry claimed that Russian troops captured territory in Ukraine’s Sumy region for the first time since 2022 in a cross-border offensive.
- Ukraine’s military announced that the number of Russian soldiers killed or wounded since the start of Moscow’s war on Kyiv has risen to about 885,130. Some 1,180 of these casualties were recorded within the past 24 hours alone, the military said.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia carried out more than 2,100 aerial attacks, including 1,200 guided aerial bomb strikes and about 870 attack drones, on Ukraine in the past week.
Politics and diplomacy
- French Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecournu said his country plans to use interest from frozen Russian assets to fund $211m in arms for Ukraine. France will also send some of its older armoured fighting vehicles to Kyiv, he said.
- United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to Saudi Arabia this week for talks with Ukrainian counterparts, the US Department of State said.
- Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said Poland, which pays for Ukraine’s access to Starlink internet services, could be “forced to look for other suppliers” after the service’s owner Elon Musk said Ukraine’s “entire front line would collapse if I turned it [Starlink] off”.
- Rubio hit back at Sikorski in a post on X, accusing him of “making things up” and saying no one had made any threats about cutting Ukraine off from Starlink. “And say thank you because without Starlink Ukraine would have lost this war long ago,” Rubio said.
- Following the exchange, Musk said on X that he would never turn off Starlink terminals in Ukraine, regardless of his disagreement with Kyiv’s policies.
- Zelenskyy said he would be travelling to Saudi Arabia on Monday, after Kyiv and Washington held initial exploratory talks.
- US President Donald Trump expressed a positive outlook towards the US-Ukraine talks in Saudi Arabia, adding that his administration had “just about” ended its suspension on sharing intelligence with Kyiv.
