What happened in the war's politics on 17 March 2022?
A look back at sanctions, arrests and shifting loyalties as the invasion entered its fourth week.
What was happening in the politics of the war on 17 March 2022? Reports from that day and the days just before it pointed to sanctions, internal pressure in Russia and a changing parliament in Kyiv.
On 17 March 2022, New Zealand added 364 Russian political and military figures to its travel-ban list, and put 13 individuals and 19 entities on its sanctions list, including asset freezes. Vladimir Putin and Sergey Lavrov were among those named. On the same day, Putin ordered the Federal Security Service to arrest General Roman Gavrilov, deputy chief of Rosgvardiya. Ukrainian intelligence information also held that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had pledged to supply Russia with 40,000 mercenaries. Separately, Russia-backed militants from the so-called Luhansk People's Republic took control of government buildings in Rubizhne.
The days before
On 16 March 2022, Putin told his ministers that Russian "traitors" would be spat out, and accused a "fifth column" of trying to destroy the country from within. Lavrov said there was hope of a compromise aimed at a ceasefire. U.S. President Joe Biden announced a further $800 million in security assistance for Ukraine, including 800 anti-aircraft systems, thousands of anti-tank missiles and armed combat drones.
On 15 March 2022, Biden signed a $1.5 trillion budget bill containing $13.6 billion in aid for Ukraine, and the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a resolution declaring Putin a war criminal and calling for an International Criminal Court investigation. Russia, in turn, sanctioned Biden and other U.S. officials, as well as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and most members of the Canadian parliament. In Kyiv, Illia Kyva of the Opposition Platform — For Life was deprived of his seat in the Verkhovna Rada, and four more MPs left the party.
