March 21, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

The United States is flying surveillance drones further south above the Black Sea after a Russian jet collided with a US drone last week, according to two US officials

The drone flights have remained in international airspace, but since the collision between one of the Russian jets and the MQ-9 Reaper drone last Tuesday, the US has moved its drone flights further away from airspace surrounding the Crimean peninsula and eastern portions of the Black Sea.

One of the officials said the routes are part of an effort “to avoid being too provocative,” as the Biden administration remains careful to avoid an incident that could potentially escalate into a direct conflict between US and Russian forces.

The official said the drone flights would continue this way “for the time being,” but added there is already “an appetite” to return to the routes closer to Russian-held territory. The officials also said Russia may try to unilaterally declare a broader closure of airspace around southern and eastern Ukraine in an attempt to force US drone flights further out.  

On Tuesday, FlightRadar24, a commercial flight tracking website, showed a US RQ-4 Global Hawk — which is a remotely-piloted aircraft used for surveillance — remaining in the southern and southwestern portions of the Black Sea at an altitude of approximately 52,000 feet.

Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said Tuesday the US was continuing to operate drones of the Black Sea, “flying in international airspace in accordance with international law.”

But he declined to say whether the US had changed its routes or mission profiles following last week’s encounter between a US spy drone and two Russian fighter jets. 

“I’m not going to, for operational security reasons, not going to get into the specifics of routes, missions, timelines, things like that,” Ryder said at a press briefing.

Memorial, a Russian human rights group, said one of its leading figures was arrested in Moscow on Tuesday and faces charges of discrediting the Russian armed forces.

A criminal case has been opened against Oleg Orlov, 69, co-chairman of Memorial Human Rights Defence Center, the group tweeted. He was later released on bail.

Memorial said Orlov's case was opened under allegations he repeatedly discredited the Russian military.

A journalist asked Orlov why he was being detained, to which he responded: "It's related to accusation against me that I support Nazism. An idiotic idea!"

Orlov had reposted an article he wrote for a French publication in November 2022 on his Facebook page. The article was entitled “They wanted fascism. They got it."

Memorial was banned in Russia in late 2021. Last year it shared the Nobel Peace Prize for its “outstanding effort to document war crimes, human right abuses and the abuse of power."

The White House rejected China’s claim to hold an impartial position in the war in Ukraine following a summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Moscow.

Earlier, Xi said that Beijing held an impartial position in the war after lengthy talks with Putin in Moscow.

The United States held a skeptical view of the summit, particularly China’s stated goal of acting as a peacemaker. Kirby said if China wanted to play a constructive role, it would use its influence to urge Russia to end the war.

Biden “wants to keep the lines of communication open with China” and will speak with Xi “at the appropriate time,” Kirby said.

US officials are still digesting the language of the joint statement released following the Xi-Putin meeting, but Kirby said there was little optimism at the summit’s conclusions.

 “We haven't seen anything that they've said, they put forward, that gives us hope that this war is going to end anytime soon,” he said.

Andriy Yermak, head of the Presidential Office in Ukraine, said three people were injured in a Russian missile attack on the Odesa region on Tuesday.

Yermak posted on Telegram: "Russians struck Odesa with four missiles. Kh-59, according to preliminary reports."

"Two missiles have been intercepted by air defence. Two more hit the city, unfortunately."

He said a three-story building was damaged on the premises of a monastery.

Yurii Kruk, head of the Odesa district military administration said "the enemy" carried out a rocket strike in the region with SU-35 fighters launching missiles from the sea.

Unofficial social media reports indicate that the missiles were aimed at an airfield in the region.

International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan said he believes Russia is treating children like “spoils of war."

Last week, the ICC announced arrest warrants against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian children's rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova for their roles in allegedly illegally deporting Ukrainian children to Russia.

The Rome Statute of the Geneva Conventions makes it clear "you can’t deport civilians to a foreign country,” Khan said.

Moscow has rejected the warrants, with a spokesperson for the ministry of foreign affairs previously saying that “Russia is not a member of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and bears no obligations under it."

The prosecutor said Russia does not seem to be denying the allegations against it but rather wearing it “like a badge of honor."

“Children are not the property of a country to be dispatched based on politics or some ideological motives. It needs to be regulated by law, and that law needs to be enforced,” Khan said. 

He said the ICC has since reached out to Russia, but it has not heard back.

A Ukrainian army major in the Bakhmut area says the situation remains extremely difficult, but that he believes the Russians are losing their "offensive potential."

Maksym Zhorin said on his Telegram channel that "the main task for the Ukrainian army is to hold the connection corridor, which allows for the supply and evacuation of the wounded."

"Therefore the fighting around this corridor, in the area of Ivankivske and Bohdanivka, is the most difficult," he said.

The two villages sit on routes west from Bakhmut toward the city of Kostiantynivka.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has left the Kremlin following a state dinner on Tuesday evening with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to footage on Russian state media.

Talks between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin continued Tuesday as Western leaders closely monitored day two of Xi's three-day Moscow visit.

Let's catch up on what happened today:

The US has changed course and is now providing Ukraine with 31 M1-A1 Abrams tanks instead of the newer M1-A2 variants previously planned, Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said Tuesday.

He added that the US would also be providing Ukraine with “advances armor and weapons systems” that are “very similar capability” to the M1-A2, including a .50-caliber heavy machine gun and 120 mm cannon.