War in Ukraine Update #3

BULGARIA-UKRAINE UPDATES

Around 78,000 Ukrainians have entered Bulgaria since Feb. 24 and 37,000 remain within the country. Bulgaria’s hotlines for Ukrainians seeking help in Bulgaria are 02/905 5555 and +380 322 465 075.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will be visiting Bulgaria on his NATO tour to Brussels and Slovakia. The main topics will be centered around Bulgaria’s ability to defend its airspace which it cannot currently do, relying solely on Bulgarian aircraft and Bulgarian crew. 

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris spoke to Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov about the “next steps” in their response to the Russian war in Ukraine. 

UKRAINE UPDATES

Russian forces are now in full control over the entire Kherson region. Forces have yet to capture any further major cities. However, Russian forces are heading towards the second-largest nuclear plant in Ukraine, just northwest of Mykolaiv, and western Ukraine has seen an increase in air raids, mainly targeting military facilities. 

Kyiv is now under a 35-hour long curfew as fighting intensifies in the capital. 

E.U. and NATO heads of state from Poland, Slovenia, and Czechia are traveling by train to Kyiv in a show of support for Ukraine. Negotiations are still ongoing but have yet to produce any actual de-escalation. Bombings in western Ukraine on March 14 were so close to Poland that blasts could be heard across the border. The war is officially at NATO’s doorstep. 

A curious Russian-looking drone with a Soviet-built bomb crashed in downtown Zagreb. It is unclear if it was Russian or Ukrainian. It traveled from Ukraine across three NATO member states before crashing. The soft soil absorbed most of the bomb and it crashed in a sparsely populated portion of Zagreb. Croatian officials expressed concern over the slow reaction. A second Russian-made drone crashed in northern Romania but it was significantly smaller and did not have any explosives. 

Brent Renaud, a New York Times contributor and filmmaker, was shot dead by Russian forces in Irpin – a suburb of Kyiv. Pierre Zakrzewski, a Fox News cameraman, was also killed outside Kyiv. 

The U.K. has followed suit with the U.S. to ban Russian oil imports. Sanctions against Russian individuals and trade continue. Yacht and property seizures are happening all around Europe. 

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This is not a comprehensive list of everything that has happened, just key highlights. As we are covering the war in real-time, some information may not be accurate by the time of reading and other events may have already happened. 

Please reference AUBG Daily’s Ukraine Sources Page to dive deeper. AUBG Daily will be providing biweekly updates on the war.