Friday, March 27. Russia’s War On Ukraine: News And Information From Ukraine Dispatches from Ukraine. Day 1,493. DNIPRO, UKRAINE - MARCH 26: A man with dog sits in the yard of residential district after Russian shelling on March 26, 2026 in Dnipro, Ukraine. Washington of tying its security guarantees to a proposed Ukrainian territorial withdrawal. In an interview with Reuters news agency published on March 25, Zelenskyy claimed that the U.S. is effectively pressing Ukraine to relinquish a 2,000 square mile zone in the eastern Donbas region, which Moscow has so far struggled to capture. Zelenskyy's comments come as trilateral peace talks, overshadowed by the escalating U.S.-Israeli confrontation with Iran, are on hold. "The Americans are prepared to finalize these guarantees at a high level once Ukraine is ready to withdraw from Donbas," Zelenskyy said. Ukraine's president presented the proposal as a necessary trade-off between immediate territorial sacrifice and future security assurances. In a rare, albeit mild, rebuke of the U.S. foreign policy, Zelenskyy implied a widening gap between Kyiv and its most important mainstay, saying that Ukraine is under greater pressure than Russia to bring the four-year war to a close. "President Donald Trump, unfortunately, in my opinion, still chooses a strategy of putting more pressure on the Ukrainian side." In earlier rounds of mediation during the Trump Administration, Moscow has long demanded that Ukraine cede Donbas outright, reportedly presenting it as a precondition for ending the war. Kyiv, in turn, has consistently argued that surrendering the region would hand Russia a forward operating base for future invasion. Since Russia's recognition of separatist states in April, 2022, the Donbas has been the arena of some of the war's fiercest fighting. Using its superior firepower in a war of attrition, Russia has largely pushed Ukrainian forces out of the region. Ukraine since then has made some gains, advancing into the central Dnipropetrovsk region last year. Any further advance would come at a steep cost, however, as even maintaining the status quo remains a struggle for Ukraine.In the same interview, Zelenskyy stated that holding the Donbas is integral to Ukraine’s defense. "I would very much like the American side to understand that the eastern part of our country is part of our security guarantees," he said. In a bid to secure support in Washington, Ukrainian officials often argue that conceding the territory would allow Russia to sidestep the costs of capturing it militarily, an effort that, by Kyiv’s estimates, could take years and impose heavy losses on Russia, one of Washington’s main rivals.it will provide $25 million to support the repatriation of Ukrainian children forcibly removed from their homes since Russia’s invasion in 2022. According to the department, these funds will help identify, return, and rehabilitate Ukrainian children and youth held away from their families and communities. Details on how and to whom the funds will be disbursed were not provided.by the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, co-chaired by Reps. James McGovern and Chris Smith on March 25th, where lawmakers discussed the abduction of Ukrainian children during the conflict. A report by the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab found that about 2,158 children were transported between 2022 and 2025 with the involvement of Gazprom and Rosneft. The report notes 80% of the entities identified as involved have not been sanctioned by the U.S. or Europe. Katya Pavlevych, Policy Advisor at Razom and the American Coalition for Ukraine, said Russia’s abduction of children is a state-run operation financed by the federal budget: “That budget is fueled by the oil industry.” Testimony at the hearing confirmed more than 19,915 cases of deported children. An estimated 1.6 million Ukrainian children remain under Russian occupation. WASHINGTON, D.C., March 25, 2026. Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission hearing on Russia’s abduction of Ukrainian children. Katya Pavlevych, Policy Advisor, Razom for Ukraine / American Coalition for Ukraine; David M. Crane, Founding Chief Prosecutor, UN Special Court for Sierra Leone; Amb. David Scheffer, Former U.S. War Crimes Ambassador, U.S. Department of State; Inna Liniova, Director, Human Rights Center, Ukraine Bar Association. Photo credit: Uliana Boichuksome 400 drones in the largest such attack on Russia since the 2022 invasion. Although Russia claimed that it shot down most of these drones, the attack set off aat the Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga in the northwestern Leningrad region, which can export 700,000 barrels of oil per day. Repeated Ukrainian drone attacks on petroleum facilities, along with western sanctions and other factors, havean unusual warning that Hungary’s seizure of a Ukrainian cash shipment risks undermining the eurozone’s credibility and the euro's standing as a trustworthy international currency. The controversy arises from an incident earlier this month, when Hungary intercepted a convoy carrying $40 million, 35 million euros and nine kilograms of gold to Ukraine. Hungarian officials later returned the vehicles and released detained Ukrainian citizens but withheld part of the cash and gold. Ukraine’s central bank protested that the transfer complied with international customs rules while bank governor Andriy Pyshnyy described the episode in a letter to Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, as a “deliberate provocation” that risks eroding trust in the EU’s financial system. Lagarde, who is often described in Europe as the "Crisis Lady," has now weighed in on the situation. An ECB spokesperson reportedly noted that she “shares the NBU’s assessment and has explicitly highlighted the risks this situation poses to the euro’s standing as an international currency.” The dispute comes amid high-stakes political tensions between Ukraine and Hungary, which continues to block a 90 billion euro EU support package for Ukraine. Without the loan, Ukraine risks losing the ability to finance its war effort and government spending in the near future. At the same time, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has placed his confrontation with Kyiv at the center of his electoral strategy ahead of next month’s parliamentary vote. Orban has defended the seizure, casting suspicion on the transfer itself: “We just want to know what the Ukrainians were doing with this vast amount of money in Hungary,” he said two days after the incident. “What happened is suspicious to me.”on another 100 ships that, according to its intelligence services, participate in Russia's "shadow fleet" involved in evasion of western sanctions on the country's oil exports. Canada previously has placed 600 ships on its shadow fleet list and imposed sanctions on 3,400 persons and entities allegedly involved in the proscribed trade. Britain, meanwhile, is