Russia Ukraine War March 16 Latest News: Today marks the 21st day of the Russia-Ukraine war that began on February 24 last month. What was termed as ‘special military operations’ by Russian President Vladimir Putin, the conflict has seen carpet bombing of all big cities across Ukraine and an exodus of over three million civilians to neighbouring nations such as Poland among others. Europe has not seen this kind of military strikes since the end of World War II in 1940s. As the global players continue to remain in ‘wait and watch’ mode, Moscow is not stalling its assault despite what Western intel chatter say.

Here are the top 10 developments on the Russia-Ukraine War that you should know today:

1: The US today sent out a message to India and other nations that are backing Russia. In a daily briefing, on a question of India buying discounted crude oil from Russia, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that though this (accepting Russian oil at reduced rate) would not come under purview of US sanction but India or any other nation must think of where ‘it want to stand when the history books are written.’ Without taking Vladimir Putin’s name, she added that supporting the Russian leadership would mean backing the ‘invasion’.

2: In a rare instance, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is all set to address the US Congress today. before this, he had also addressed the British Parliament in an outreach to convince global powers to punish Russia. Zelenskky’s address, which will be livestreamed into the US Capitol, is among the most important public strategy in his fight against Vladimir Putin.

3: Kyiv has entered a 35-hour-long curfew from today. This comes after yesterday’s Russian assault killing five locals.

4: Meanwhile, on the diplomatic front, there maybe some hope for resolution. After the fourth round of talks, the Ukrainian side says that the peace talks look ‘more realistic’.

5: In port city of Mariupol, a local mayor says that the Russian troops are holding around 400 people hostage at a medical facility.

6: Meanwhile in Russia, people were shocked to see a live main evening news program on state television being briefly interrupted by a woman who walked into the TV studio holding a anti-war poster. The woman, who has been identified as she a Channel 1 employee, was taken into police custody.

7: After death of an American journalist, who was shot dead, a veteran videographer and a 24-year-old Ukrainian journalist were killed when their vehicle came under fire outside of Kyiv. Both were working for Fox News. So far, three journalists have been killed in the conflict.

8: The latest assessment by the UK defence ministry says that Russia has been forced to call in reinforcement from around the country as the on-ground forces battle Ukrainian resistance. The personnel losses, which have never been acknowledged by Kremlin, have triggered a strategy overhaul. Several intel reports suggest that Russia is putting Syrian fighters in charge to bolster its advancement and replace the fatigued forces.

9: On economic front, in face of the stringent sanctions, Russia is on the verge of defaulting on government bonds, with billions of dollars owed to foreigners. An AP report says that market experts are now thinking about the 1998 when Moscow had defaulted. The Russian default at that time had sparked global financial disruption.

10: In new trouble for Russia that’s staring at a default, the European Union has given green signal for new round of sanctions against Moscow. The 27-nation bloc has approved a new set of sanctions to punish Moscow.