What happened in Ukraine's regions on 27 March 2022?
A look back at a missile strike in Volyn, a Turkish call to Moscow and the aftermath of events in Lviv, Kharkiv and Kherson.
What was happening across Ukraine's regions on 27 March 2022? Reports from that day and the preceding days pointed to strikes in the west, shelling in the east and a contested situation in the south, alongside diplomatic activity abroad.
A strike in Volyn
On 27 March 2022, a missile hit an oil depot in the Volyn region, according to Yurii Pohuliaiko, head of the regional administration. The strike came a day after Russian forces carried out an airstrike on the western city of Lviv, which injured five people, as reported on 26 March 2022.
Kharkiv and Kherson
In the north-east, on 26 March 2022, Russian shelling hit the Holocaust memorial at Drobytsky Yar during the Battle of Kharkiv, damaging the memorial's menorah.
In the south, a United States defence official said on 25 March 2022 that Russian forces were no longer in full control of Kherson, the only major city they had captured in Ukraine. Russian forces had taken the city on 1 March 2022 after brief combat with local territorial defence fighters, and then began a military occupation.
Diplomacy
On 27 March 2022, Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, stressed the need for a ceasefire in Ukraine during a telephone call with Vladimir Putin, according to Erdogan's office. He also called for an improvement in the humanitarian situation in the region.
The previous day, in Warsaw, US President Joe Biden said Putin "cannot remain in power". A senior administration official told journalists within minutes that the president's point was that Putin could not be allowed to exercise power over his neighbours or the region, and that he was not discussing Putin's power in Russia or regime change. The Kremlin responded that this was a choice for the Russian people.
