What happened in Ukraine on 11 March 2022

What did the war look like on 11 March 2022, the sixteenth day of the Russian invasion? It showed fighting spreading to parts of Ukraine that had so far been spared, alongside a widening set of economic measures against Russia.

Strikes reach the west and Dnipro

Russia launched what it described as "high-precision" airstrikes on airfields in Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk in western Ukraine. Four Ukrainian service members were killed and six others injured. Russian Air Force jets also bombed the city of Dnipro for the first time, destroying a shoe factory and killing one person.

Kyiv, Chernihiv and Melitopol

Near the capital, a large convoy of Russian military vehicles, including tanks and self-propelled artillery, began "fanning out" to forests and towns around Kyiv as it prepared to advance on the city.

In Chernihiv Oblast, Ukrainian ground forces launched a counter-offensive and regained control of five settlements. They also seized two Russian armoured personnel carriers and ammunition. Separately, Ukrainian military officials said that 31 Russian battalion tactical groups had been damaged or destroyed.

In the south, Russian troops captured the mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, and took him to an unknown location after he refused to cooperate with the occupation forces. His capture was confirmed by Anton Herashchenko, an official of Ukraine's Internal Affairs Ministry.

A new round of sanctions

The US president, Joe Biden, announced that he would revoke Russia's most favoured nation trade status, in coordination with the European Union and the Group of Seven. The United States would also ban imports of Russian seafood, alcohol and diamonds, forbid new investment in Russia by American citizens, and criminalise the export of US banknotes to Russia.

The EU said it would ban all imports of iron and steel goods from Russia, ban the export of luxury goods to Russia, and freeze Russia's cryptocurrency assets.

Economic and information fallout

Two Ukrainian producers of semiconductor-grade neon gas, together making about half of the world's supply, shut down operations because of the invasion. That was expected to worsen the semiconductor shortages that began with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Air Astana suspended all flights to and from Russia, citing the withdrawal of insurance coverage for commercial flights.

Russia blocked access to Instagram in response to Meta Platforms allowing calls to violence toward Russian soldiers in Ukraine, as well as death threats toward the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

Markets moved after Putin said there had been progress in talks with Ukraine. Stock prices rose in the United States and other global markets, and the Dow increased by 300 points.

Calls for protest in Russia

The Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny renewed calls for anti-war and anti-Putin protests in cities across Russia.

Taken together, the events of 11 March 2022 showed a war moving into new areas of Ukraine, Ukrainian forces counter-attacking in the north, and governments and companies abroad continuing to tighten economic and trade pressure on Russia.