04:15 March 19
After Crimea, Putin also visited Mariupol
After the trip to Crimea on the ninth anniversary of the annexation, Putin was also in Mariupol, TASS writes, citing the Kremlin's press service. During the trip, Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin reported in detail to the President on the progress of construction and reconstruction work on the city and surrounding area, the press service said. Moscow conquered the city last May after three months of hard battle with the last resisters barricaded at the Azovstal steel plant, Putin reached it by helicopter, Tass said. Just a few days ago, the Russian military administration inaugurated a helicopter platform on the Azovstal steel plant. Putin also held a meeting at the invasion command post in Rostov-on-Don, the Russian city where the FSB building burned down three days ago. "The head of state listened to reports from the Chief of Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valeriy Gerasimov, and some military commanders," the Kremlin said.
00:07 March 19
Two civilians killed and ten wounded in attacks on Kramatorsk
Two civilians were killed and ten wounded by Russian "cluster munitions" attacks on Saturday afternoon in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, said Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the Donetsk region. The shots hit a park, a funeral shop, as well as a dozen residential buildings and two cars, he said on Telegram. "More than 100 countries ban the use of cluster munitions, but Russia continues to use these weapons that release many smaller bombs and indiscriminately injure civilians," Kyrylenko said. A few hours earlier, the mayor of Donesk, Alexander Goncharenko, had reported that two people had been killed and eight wounded, including three seriously, "as a result of the shelling of Kramatorsk with cluster munitions".