What did 28 March 2022 reveal about the war?

What did the war look like on 28 March 2022? Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that day that some mayors abducted by invading Russian forces had been found dead. The claim put the treatment of local officials in occupied areas alongside the military and diplomatic developments of the preceding days.

A strike far from the front

On 27 March 2022, a missile hit an oil depot in the Volyn region, according to the head of the regional administration, Yurii Pohuliaiko. The report showed that the war's effects were being felt in western Ukraine as well.

Diplomacy on several tracks

On 27 March, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke by phone with Vladimir Putin. Erdogan's office said he stressed the need for a ceasefire in Ukraine and called for an improvement in the humanitarian situation in the region.

A day earlier, on 26 March, US President Joe Biden said in a speech in Warsaw that Putin "cannot remain in power". Within minutes, a senior administration official told reporters that the point was that Putin could not be allowed to exercise power over his neighbours or the region, and that Biden was not discussing Putin's power in Russia or regime change. The White House later issued a statement along the same lines. The Kremlin responded that this was a choice for the Russian people.

What the day shows

Taken together, the reports from 26 to 28 March 2022 show three strands running at once: Zelenskyy's account of abducted mayors found dead, a missile strike on fuel infrastructure in Volyn, and diplomacy in which Ankara urged a ceasefire while Washington moved to limit the reach of Biden's remark.