What the world's news held on 16 March 2022
A look back at reports from mid-March 2022, from the abduction of a Ukrainian mayor to diplomatic moves in the Caucasus and stalled Iran talks.
What was being reported around the world as of 16 March 2022? Several threads, drawn from reports in the days before that date, point to a war and its diplomatic aftershocks reaching well beyond Ukraine.
A mayor abducted
On 13 March 2022, the eighteenth day of the war, Ukraine's foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said Russian forces had abducted Yevhen Matveyev, the mayor of Dniprorudne. Reports at the time described Matveyev as the town's leader, and the account of his abduction was attributed to Kuleba.
Talks sought in the Caucasus
On 14 March 2022, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan asked the OSCE Minsk Group to help start peace talks with Azerbaijan. The aim, as reported, was to normalise relations after the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the 2021–2022 border crisis between the two countries.
Iran talks at an impasse
On 11 March 2022, renegotiation of the Iranian nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, was reported to have reached an impasse. The obstacle was Russian demands for a sanctions exemption of its own.
Taken together, the reports show how events in one region were being felt in diplomacy elsewhere, even as the detention of a local Ukrainian official drew attention to the situation in occupied areas.
