The Russo-Ukrainian War: List of Major Events, Today 386 | News of the war between Russia and Ukraine

Here is the situation as of Thursday, March 16, 2023:

American drone accident

• US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the crash of a US reconnaissance drone in the Black Sea after it was intercepted by Russian aircraft is still under “investigation”.
• Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the US will continue to fly wherever international law allows, after speaking with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu.
• Russia’s ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, said he told US officials that Moscow “will no longer allow anyone to violate our waters,” Russia’s Tass news agency reported.
• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the United States “ignores” the fact that Russia has restricted the airspace around Crimea.
• The Russian Defense Ministry said it would respond “proportionately” to any future US “provocations”.

fighting

• Andriy Yermak, the chief of staff of the Ukrainian president, said that Ukrainian ground forces shot down a Russian fighter jet near the besieged eastern city of Bakhmut.
• The commander of the Russian mercenary force, Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin, said that the Russian forces had taken control of the village of Zaleznyansky and were expanding the encirclement of Bakhmut.

Diplomacy

• Finland expects Turkey to accept its NATO membership this week as Finnish President Sauli Niinisto is scheduled to meet his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul on Friday.
• In a televised meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Russia was fighting “Nazis” in Ukraine and expressed his support for Moscow.
• The International Monetary Fund says its staff have made “very good progress” in talks with Ukrainian officials about a range of policies underpinning a new lending program for Ukraine.