Russia Ukraine War March 16 Latest News: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday said that the talks were becoming “more realistic”, while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said there was “some hope for compromise”, with neutral status for Ukraine – a major Russian demand – now on the table, reported Reuters. As per the report, Russia and Ukraine both emphasized new-found scope for compromise as peace talks were set to resume three weeks into a Russian assault that has so far failed to topple the Ukrainian government. Ukrainian officials have expressed hope this week that the war could end sooner than expected as Moscow was reportedly coming to terms with lack of fresh troops to keep fighting.

Today marks the 21st day of the Russia-Ukraine war that began on February 24 last month. What was termed as ‘special military operations’ by Russian President Vladimir Putin, the conflict has seen carpet bombing of all big cities across Ukraine and an exodus of over three million civilians to neighbouring nations such as Poland among others.

Here are the top 10 developments on the Russia-Ukraine War that you should know today:

1: In a rare instance, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the US Congress today. In hius virtual address, Zelenskiy urged American lawmakers to do more to protect his country from Russia’s invasion and pleaded with President Joe Biden to be the world’s “leader of peace.” “Russia has turned the Ukrainian sky into a source of death for thousands of people,” Zelenskiy said in his virtual address before showing a video containing graphic images of death and destruction in Ukraine that ended with “Close the sky over Ukraine.” Zelenskiy continued his push for the imposition of a no-fly zone over Ukraine and asked for more planes and defense systems to respond to a Russian invasion launched last month that has caused large-scale destruction in his country and has unleashed a wave of refugees. He closed his address with a direct plea in English to Biden: “I wish you to be the leader of the world. Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace.”

2: The US today sent out a message to India and other nations that are backing Russia. In a daily briefing, on a question of India buying discounted crude oil from Russia, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that though this (accepting Russian oil at reduced rate) would not come under purview of US sanction but India or any other nation must think of where ‘it want to stand when the history books are written.’ Without taking Vladimir Putin’s name, she added that supporting the Russian leadership would mean backing the ‘invasion’.

3: Kyiv has entered a 35-hour-long curfew from today. This comes after yesterday’s Russian assault killing five locals.

4: Meanwhile, on the diplomatic front, there maybe some hope for resolution. After the fourth round of talks, the Ukrainian side says that the peace talks look ‘more realistic’.

5: In port city of Mariupol, a local mayor says that the Russian troops are holding around 400 people hostage at a medical facility.

6: Meanwhile in Russia, people were shocked to see a live main evening news program on state television being briefly interrupted by a woman who walked into the TV studio holding a anti-war poster. The woman, who has been identified as she a Channel 1 employee, was taken into police custody.

7: After death of an American journalist, who was shot dead, a veteran videographer and a 24-year-old Ukrainian journalist were killed when their vehicle came under fire outside of Kyiv. Both were working for Fox News. So far, three journalists have been killed in the conflict.

8: The latest assessment by the UK defence ministry says that Russia has been forced to call in reinforcement from around the country as the on-ground forces battle Ukrainian resistance. The personnel losses, which have never been acknowledged by Kremlin, have triggered a strategy overhaul. Several intel reports suggest that Russia is putting Syrian fighters in charge to bolster its advancement and replace the fatigued forces.

9: On economic front, in face of the stringent sanctions, Russia is on the verge of defaulting on government bonds, with billions of dollars owed to foreigners. An AP report says that market experts are now thinking about the 1998 when Moscow had defaulted. The Russian default at that time had sparked global financial disruption.

10: Ukraine is likely to seek some security guarantees from the West that fall short of NATO membership. this may give way for a possible path to compromise. Ukraine’s NATO membership was one of the concerns raised by Russia.