Live blog: Russia shoots down Ukraine missiles fired at Crimea

Saturday, March 23, 2024

2121 GMT — Russia said it had repulsed a barrage of Ukrainian missiles fired at the city of Sevastopol in Crimea, the city's governor saying two people had been injured.

"According to initial information, more than 10 missiles have been shot down," Sevastopol's governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said on Telegram.

He added that a child and a woman were injured by debris from the downed missiles, which also damaged several residential buildings.

Russia annexed the territory from Ukraine in 2014.

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2140 GMT — Russia claims new village taken on Ukraine frontline

Russia claimed a new territorial victory over Ukrainian forces struggling to find weapons and troops while the two sides staged deadly aerial attacks on each other.

As a militant attack on a Moscow concert hall became a new flashpoint dispute between the arch-rivals, Russia's armed forces said they had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, just west of Bakhmut, the devastated city seized 10 months ago.

Russian forces have taken control of a string of frontline settlements in recent weeks, as Ukrainian forces suffer troop and ammunition shortages.

2136 GMT — Daesh solely responsible for Moscow attack, no Ukraine involvement, White House says

Daesh terror group bears sole responsibility for the deadly attack near Moscow on Friday and there was no Ukrainian involvement, US National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said.

The US government early this month shared information with Russia about a planned attack in Moscow and also issued a public advisory to Americans in Russia on March 7, Watson said in a statement.

"Daesh bears sole responsibility for this attack. There was no Ukrainian involvement whatsoever," Watson said.

2100 GMT — African leaders send condolences to Russia following terror attack

African leaders sent condolences to the people of Russia and the government, following a terror attack that killed more than 130 victims in Moscow.

The death toll from Friday’s shooting at the Crocus City concert hall in the Moscow region rose to 133 after additional bodies were pulled from the debris, the Russian Investigative Committee said.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said he was shocked and saddened by the attack.

“We are deeply saddened and we pay our condolences to the people of Russia following the tragic terror attack that killed so many people,” he wrote on X. “It is always sad when so many people are killed in a terror attack.”

1116GMT — Kiev denies claims of Ukrainian link to Moscow attack

Kiev said it rejected Russian claims of a Ukrainian link to an attack on a Moscow concert hall that killed more than 100 people.

"The versions of Russian special services regarding Ukraine are untenable and absurd," presidential aide Mykhaylo Podolyak said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, after Russia's FSB said on Saturday it had arrested the gunmen trying to flee to Ukraine.

1437 GMT — Russia claims taking control of Ivanivske settlement in Ukraine

The Russian Defense Ministry has claimed it had taken control of the Ivanivske settlement, also known as Krasnoye in Russian, located in the Donetsk region of Ukraine.

The ministry said that the Russian forces also managed to improve its position on the frontline.

The ministry said 171 Ukrainian drones, 29 rockets launched from HIMARS and Vampire multiple rocket launchers were shot down during the day.

The Belgorod region has become the most attacked Russian region, it said, noting that over 50 attacks were launched against this area during the day.

Separately, Belgorod region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said two civilians were killed and two injured in Ukraine's shelling on Saturday.

"Over the past two weeks, 24 civilians were killed and 152 injured in Ukraine's shelling of the Belgorod region," he said.

0941 GMT — Ukrainian energy workers still restoring power after mass Russian strike

Energy workers in Ukraine were still restoring electricity supplies to some consumers a day after what Kiev said was Moscow's biggest attack of the war on the country's power grid, authorities have said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Telegram that the "technical possibility for electricity supply" had been restored in most affected regions, but that the situation in the eastern Kharkiv region remained difficult.

National grid operator Ukrenergo said in a statement that consumers in Kharkiv city and the western Khmelnytskyi region were still without power, while planned outages were in force in the southern Odessa region.

0929 GMT — Russia must respond on battlefield if Ukraine behind Moscow attack

If Ukraine is found to be behind Friday's attack that killed at least 115 people near Moscow there should be a clear answer on the battlefield, the RIA news agency has quoted Russian lawmaker and former general Andrei Kartapolov.

Russia has arrested 11 people including four suspected gunmen in connection with the shooting rampage at a concert hall near Moscow, the Kremlin said.

0901GMT — Moscow shooting attackers had contacts in Ukraine: Russia's FSB

Four suspected perpetrators of a deadly attack near Moscow on Friday were heading towards Russia's border with Ukraine when they were apprehended, and had contacts on the Ukrainian side, Interfax quoted the FSB security service as saying.

The FSB said the attack had been carefully planned.

0621 GMT — Ukraine shoots down 31 Russian drones during overnight strike: Kiev

Ukrainian forces shot down 31 of 34 attack drones launched overnight by Russia, Kiev's airforce has said.

The Iranian-made drones were downed over parts of central, southern and southeastern Ukraine, the military said.

0544 GMT — Deadly Ukrainian drone strike hits Russia's Belgorod region

One civilian was killed and two others wounded in a drone attack in Russia's Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine, the regional governor has said.

"It's shaping up to be a difficult morning," Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on Telegram, noting that two districts in his region were attacked by drones. "One civilian was killed, two others were wounded."

0456 GMT — Oil refinery in Russia on fire after drone attack: Russian news agencies

A fire broke out at an oil refinery in Russia's Samara region following a drone attack, the regional governor has said, according to Russian news agencies.

"Last night, there were several drone attacks against regional oil refineries," said Governor Dmitri Azarov.

One of those attacks caused a fire at the Kuibyshev oil refinery, he added, noting that there were no casualties.

0018 GMT — Medvedev says Ukraine's top officials must be 'destroyed' if linked to Moscow attack

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has said that if Ukrainian leaders were found to be involved, they would be "destroyed".

Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, made the statement on his official account on the Telegram messenger service.

"All of them must be found and ruthlessly destroyed as terrorists," said Medvedev.

"Death for death."

2100 GMT — Ukraine accuses Putin of planning concert hall attack

The main intelligence directorate of the Ukrainian Defence Ministry has accused Russian secret services of planning the deadly attack on a concert hall near Moscow.

"The terrorist attack in Moscow was a planned and deliberate provocation by the Russian special services on [Vladimir] Putin's orders," the service said on Telegram, adding that the aim was to "further escalate and expand the war" with Ukraine.

For our live updates from Friday, March 22, click here.