Zelensky: “Real Pressure” Needed For Russia To Agree To Ceasefire
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday that Ukraine expected “real pressure” on Russia to agree to a ceasefire from the United States and Europe, following a third night of Russian long range drone attacks despite Russian President Vladimir Putin claiming that he had ordered a halt to drone attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure.
Ukraine’s air force said it tracked 214 long range suicide drones and decoy drones overnight. 114 of them were claimed to have been shot down by Ukrainian air defenses, with another 81 decoy drones failing to reach their intended targets.
Ukrainian authorities report that drones attacking Odesa resulted in injuries to three children, while Russian aerial bombing of Zaporizhzhia injured six people, including a 4 year old child.
“It is joint pressure on Russia, along with tougher sanctions and stronger defense support for our country, that paves the way to ending this kind of terror and Russia’s prolongation of the war”, said Zelensky in a statement posted to his official social media pages. “We expect real pressure on Russia from the United States, Europe, and all our partners. This is what will enable diplomacy to work.”
While Putin claimed to have ordered a stop to long range drone attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure following a phone call with United States President Donald Trump, on March 19, discussing a possible ceasefire agreement, attacks have continued, with Zelensky saying on Thursday that the continuation of the nightly attacks exposed Russia’s “true attitude towards peace”.
In turn, the Ukrainian military claimed on Thursday that a long range drone attack on the Russian Engels-2 air base in the early hours of March 20 destroyed stored weapons for Russian Air Force strategic bombers based there.
In a brief statement, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine credited the Security Service of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Special Operations Forces and “other” units in the Ukrainian military for the joint operation that resulted in fires and secondary explosions from ammunition cooking off around the base.
The Engels-2 air base hosts Russian Air Force Tu-95MS, Tu-22M3 and Tu-160 strategic bombers, with all three bomber types used to conduct cruise missile attacks on Ukrainian cities.
While the Engels-2 air base has previously been subject to multiple Ukrainian drone attacks, Saratov governor Roman Busargin said the March 20 strikes were the largest yet experienced by the region since the start of Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Busargin said that residents of Engels near the air base were being evacuated as fires at the air base continued to burn.