ISA Ukraine Conflict Update - 28th of March 2022

Daily Summary

Russia’s recent military efforts in Ukraine remained targeted at the southern port city of Mariupol, where, despite a near-total destruction of the city, Russian forces were still facing determined Ukrainian resistance. In recent days, Russia has increased its use of shelling by Russian warships in the Sea of Azov to subdue the remaining Ukrainian defenders.

In the north, it appeared that Russian forces were attempting to regroup to the west and east of Kyiv following a series of Ukrainian counterattacks in recent days. Meanwhile, it was reported that Russian forces had completely encircled the northern city of Chernihiv, another place that has been reduced to rubble by Russian artillery.

In the east, Russian forces have been able to consolidate more of the territory under their control and appear to be attempting to widen the area under their control to the west of both the Luhansk and Donetsk breakaway regions. Further north, Ukrainian forces continued to prevent their Russian opponents from gaining much ground around the city of Kharkiv.

The inability of Russia’s armed forces to achieve any of their pre-invasion goals prompted Russian officials to claim that their actual objective in Ukraine was to secure the “liberation” of the Donbass region that includes the breakaway regions of Luhansk and Donetsk. However, this is unlikely to mean that future efforts to secure Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa and other Ukrainian cities are no longer to take place.

Key Developments

Biden Calls for Putin’s Removal: United States President Joe Biden ended a speech in Poland by calling for Russian President Vladimir Putin to be removed from office, only to have officials from the Biden Administration later claim that he did not mean for the Russian president should be ousted.