United 24 Media:
🔹 Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof announced that he had spoken with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer about Ukraine. They emphasized the importance of steadfast support for Ukraine and discussed security guarantees within the framework of the “coalition of the willing.”
“Reliable security guarantees are a key condition for lasting peace in Ukraine,” Schoof stated, noting the significance of last week’s meeting of military planners. He also highlighted the upcoming meeting in Paris on March 27, hosted by President Macron.
Schoof thanked Starmer for his leadership in recent weeks and underscored that their efforts aim to enhance not only Ukraine’s security but also that of Europe and the Netherlands.
🔸 Ukrainian teenagers in occupied territories are resisting Russian brainwashing by secretly running a Ukrainian book club, The Guardian reports.
Seventeen-year-old Mariyka (not her real name) and her friends gather in secret to discuss Ukrainian poetry and prose, taking extreme precautions to avoid detection. They close windows, check for eavesdroppers, and meet in small groups of no more than three to reduce the risk of being reported by collaborators.
In the occupied areas, Ukrainian textbooks are labeled “extremist,” and possessing them can lead to imprisonment. Parents risk losing custody of their children if they allow them to study the Ukrainian curriculum online. Teens caught speaking Ukrainian at school have even been subjected to intimidation and “interrogations” in the forest by Russian forces.
Finding Ukrainian books is another challenge. After destroying nearly 200,000 Ukrainian publications from local libraries, the occupiers left Mariyka and her friends reliant on e-books, which they delete from their devices after reading to avoid detection during phone or computer checks.
Mariyka’s favorite author is Lesya Ukrainka, who also founded an underground book club in Kyiv in 1888, when Ukrainian culture was suppressed under the Russian Empire.
At school, Mariyka says, “They don’t teach us knowledge, but hatred for other Ukrainians. They’ve removed all Ukrainian symbols and replaced them with portraits of Putin. History lessons focus only on ‘Greater Russia’ and how it was always under attack.”
The book club, Mariyka explains, is more than a refuge for learning—it’s a way to remind Ukrainians in free territories that some, even under occupation, are still fighting to stay connected to their Ukrainian identity.
🔹 Poland plans to strengthen its border with Belarus by deploying an additional 1,500 border guards, according to Interior and Administration Minister Tomasz Siemoniak, as reported by RMF24.
The additional forces will focus on areas deemed most vulnerable to illegal migration and hybrid threats. The first 500 guards are set to join patrols this year, with the remaining 1,000 scheduled to begin next year.
🔸 After his conversation with Defense Minister Umerov, President Zelenskyy mentioned that the meeting between the Ukrainian and US delegations in Saudi Arabia is ongoing.
The president urged the international community to increase pressure on Russia to achieve a genuine ceasefire.
“Since March 11, there has been a proposal for an unconditional ceasefire, and such strikes could have stopped by now. But it is Russia that continues all this. Every night, every day, it carries out the most cynical strikes. Without pressure on Russia, they will keep disregarding real diplomacy in Moscow and continue destroying life,” Zelenskyy said.
🔹 This could be our last peaceful summer. Russia could attack Lithuania as early as this fall, — military historian, professor at Potsdam University Sönke Naitzel in an interview with Bild chief reporter Hans-Jörg Felewald.
“We see that the security situation in the world has changed. We see that Russia has announced large-scale exercises in Belarus. We see a strong fear in the Baltic states that during these exercises Russian troops may cross the border,” — says Naitzel.
🔸 “Would you go to war for Germany? None of us wants war, but we must prepare for it now,” the German magazine Stern urged in a recent publication.
A similar question was posed to Germans last year by journalists from Focus magazine. The survey yielded telling results: only a third of respondents (32%) said they would “take up arms and actively participate in hostilities,” while the majority (57%) rejected the idea of personal involvement in a potential conflict. (Photo 1)
🔹 There are currently at least 40 private companies in Ukraine producing ammunition and explosives, said Mykhailo Fedorov, head of the Ministry of Digital Transformation.
He noted that the number of such manufacturers is increasing every month.
🔸 During the March 20 attack, Ukrainian Defense Forces destroyed infrastructure used for storing X-101 missiles at the Engels airbase, where Russian strategic aviation is stationed, OSINT analysts reported, referencing Maxar satellite images.
The satellite images reveal significant damage to buildings where missiles are prepared for loading onto strategic bombers.
Due to secondary detonations following the strike, analysts are currently unable to determine the exact number of Russian missiles destroyed.
🔹 Sweden and the Baltic countries believe that no single nation should dictate decisions for the entire EU. This follows Hungary’s recent statement about blocking Ukraine’s path to EU membership, citing alleged “oppression of Hungarians in Transcarpathia.”
In response, the Swedish Embassy in Ukraine issued a statement:
“Hungary should not slow down negotiations on Ukraine’s EU membership. Our Minister for EU Affairs, together with her counterparts from the Northern Baltic countries, has appealed to the European Commission, requesting concrete proposals to advance Ukraine’s accession process.”
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson also commented, saying, “It is terrible, though not surprising, that Hungary, under Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, is obstructing Ukraine’s negotiations with the EU.”
Hungary’s stance has already disrupted two recent EU summits, where it refused to support conclusions emphasizing unwavering EU support for Ukraine. While this impasse is not yet a full crisis, in the long term, it could significantly impact decisions requiring unanimity—particularly on Ukraine’s EU membership.
“Hungary has practically pledged to halt this process, and it’s terrible,” Kristersson remarked.
🔸 Special operations forces destroyed four enemy helicopters in Russia's Belgorod region with a HIMARS missile strike, according to a report from the press service. The targeted helicopters included two Ka-52 attack helicopters and two Mi-8 transport helicopters.