This week, a terrorist attack occurred in Bucha, Kyiv region, the Russians carried out one of the most massive drone attacks on Ukraine (almost a thousand drones per day), and President Volodymyr Zelensky went on a trip to the Middle East, where Ukraine signed several bilateral agreements.
Babel has compiled the main events of the week so that you can stay up to date with the news.
Terrorist attack in Bucha
On Monday, March 23, at 05:35, law enforcement officers received a report of an explosion on one of the streets of Bucha (Kyiv region). The explosion broke out windows, damaged the facade of a residential building and gas networks. When emergency services arrived at the scene at 07:35, another explosion occurred, during which two law enforcement officers were injured — their lives are not in danger.
Law enforcement officers detained the perpetrator, a 21-year-old local resident, Bohdan Tymchenko. He was recruited by Russian intelligence services through a computer game. According to the detainee, he met an unknown person in the game.
After some time, the person began to blackmail him, claiming that he was watching his mother from a drone and demanding that he plant explosives so that she would stay alive. Tymchenkoʼs mother is a servicewoman and is currently in a combat zone.
The next day, Tymchenko was remanded in custody for two months without bail. On suspicion of terrorism, he faces up to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property.
Massive attack on Ukraine
On Tuesday, March 24, during the afternoon, the Russians launched 556 strike drones into Ukraine, one of the largest drone attacks on Ukraine in the entire war. Ukrainian air defenses shot down 541 targets.
If you count the drones and missiles that the Russians used to attack Ukraine on Tuesday night (426), they launched a total of 982 air attack vehicles in a day.
The geography of strikes during the day was wider than at night: Poltava, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Vinnytsia, and the western regions of the country — from Khmelnytskyi to Lviv.
Lviv was the worst-hit city, with 32 people injured, critical infrastructure facilities and a national architectural monument — the Bernardine Monastery ensemble in the city center — were damaged.
Orban ordered to stop gas transit to Ukraine
On the night of Thursday, March 26, a decree by Prime Minister Viktor Orban was published to stop the transit of natural gas through Hungary to Ukraine starting in July. The document prohibits the Hungarian operator FGSZ from providing capacity for gas transit to Ukraine starting in July.
The company has already implemented contracts until June. According to media reports, in 2025, Ukraine received approximately 44% of its gas through Hungary.
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi stated that if Hungary stops exporting to Ukraine, it will lose money, and Ukraine has diversified sources. Hungary has earned over a billion dollars from gas transit and exports to Ukraine.
The reason for Hungaryʼs position is the halt to the transit of Russian oil through the “Druzhba” pipeline. Ukraine has been halting it since late January due to Russian attacks. Hungary and Slovakia, which received the vast majority of their oil through “Druzhba”, have said that Ukraine is blocking the oil route "for political reasons", while Hungary has blocked a €90 billion loan for Ukraine from the EU until Kyiv restores the pipeline.
Zelenskyʼs trip to the Middle East: diesel imports and bilateral agreements
On Thursday, March 26, President Volodymyr Zelensky began a trip to the Middle East: on Thursday and Friday, he visited Saudi Arabia, on Saturday, the UAE and Qatar, and on Sunday, Jordan. In particular, Zelensky met with Ukrainian drone experts who are helping countries in the region shoot down Iranian drones.
Ukraine has signed ten-year cooperation agreements with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and plans to sign an agreement with the United Arab Emirates within a few days.
Zelensky also said that during the visit he agreed to supply Ukraine with diesel fuel for at least a year.
According to the president, today the Ukrainian army is fully supplied with everything, and so far there have been no complaints from the army about a fuel shortage.
Earlier, Reuters wrote that Ukraine would have enough diesel by the end of March, and deliveries in April were questionable. At that time, Serhiy Kuyun, director of the A-95 consulting group, said that the information about a possible diesel shortage in April in Ukraine was not true. According to him, the Reuters material was the result of a misinterpretation of market surveys.
Kuyun explained that fuel contracting for April is ongoing — at least 40% has already been registered. The remaining volumes are confirmed by suppliers, but the question remains of the price at which this fuel will be purchased.
Iran claims to have destroyed Ukrainian drone warehouse in Dubai
On Saturday, March 28, Iranʼs Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had destroyed a warehouse with anti-drone systems from Ukraine in Dubai. The IRGC said there were 21 Ukrainians in the warehouse. Their fate is unknown, but Iran believes they are likely dead. There is no confirmation of this information at this time.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine officially denied Iranʼs statement.
"This is a lie, we officially refute this information. The Iranian regime often conducts such disinformation operations — and in this it is no different from the Russians," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi in a comment to Babel.
Attacks on the Leningrad region
Over the past week, Ukrainian forces have attacked Russian military and oil infrastructure, including four times in the Leningrad region of the Russian Federation. The ports of Primorsk and Ust-Luga, as well as the Kirisk oil refinery, were under attack.
The combat icebreaker "Purga", which was stationed at the Vyborg Shipbuilding Plant, was also hit.
During these attacks, Ukrainian drones, probably jammed by Russian electronic warfare equipment, fell on the territory of neighboring states: on March 24 — in Lithuania, and the next day — in Latvia and Estonia (in Estonia, the drone hit a power plant chimney). The authorities of these countries blamed Russia and Russian aggression against Ukraine for the incidents.
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi said that drone incidents in the Baltic states are happening all the time. Ukraine is in contact with these states, and they have no doubt that the cause of these incidents is the war unleashed by Russia, and their consequence should be increased pressure on Moscow.
On Sunday, March 29, three suspected Ukrainian drones crashed in Finland. One of them was identified by the Finnish Air Force as a Ukrainian AN-196 "Feb".
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