News And Information From Ukraine.

Dispatches from Ukraine, provided by Forbes Ukraine’s editorial team.

As Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues and the war rages on, reliable sources of information are critical. Forbes Ukraine’s reporters will continue to gather information and provide updates on the situation. We will be sharing them here as they come. Live coverage from Forbes Ukraine’s site can be found here.

March 15, Tuesday, Day 20. By Daryna Antoniuk

National

More than three million people have fled Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion on Feb. 24, according to the UN migration agency.

Ukraine “cannot enter NATO,” but needs “new formats of cooperation,” according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“For years, we heard about open doors, but we understand that we cannot enter,” Zelensky said on March 15.

Fox News cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski was killed by Russian artillery in Horenka, outside of Kyiv. He had been reporting from Ukraine since February. Zakrzewski’s colleague Benjamin Hall was injured and remains in a hospital in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian parliament has supported the extension of martial law in Ukraine for a month, until April 25.

Ukraine has been hit by nearly 3,000 cyber attacks since mid-February, according to Ukraine’s cybersecurity official Victor Zhora. Most of the attacks came from Russia. Their goal was to take down government and financial services organizations, as well as internet service providers.

During the war in Ukraine, 42% of small businesses ceased operations, 31% temporarily suspended their work, and only 13% managed to continue working as of March 14, according to a survey by the European Business Association.

Regional

The Russian military took hostage doctors and patients of the intensive care hospital in Mariupol, according to Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of the Donetsk regional military administration. The patients said that it is impossible to leave the hospital because of the heavy shelling; hostages are hiding in the basement.

Russia has killed more than 2,100 residents of Mariupol as of March 13. The city is devastated by the attacks and civilian buildings are destroyed.

Russian troops fired two missiles at the airport in Dnipro, Ukraine’s fourth-largest city in the east of the country. A missile destroyed a runway and severely damaged infrastructure. It will take a long time to restore the airport, according to the head of the city council Valentyn Reznichenko.

Eighty people, including two children, were injured in an attack by the Russian military on Mykolayiv on March 14. On the same day, the Russian military launched 65 attacks on Kharkiv, which has been under heavy shelling for the past two weeks.

Russian attacks on Kyiv as of March 15:

• A Russian shell hit a private two-story house in the Osokorky district in Kyiv. No casualties were reported.
• Another shell hit a 16-story residential building in the Sviatoshynskyi district in Kyiv. The building was badly damaged. Five people died, five were injured.^[
• Russia also hit a residential building in the Podilskyi district, as well as the Lukyanivska metro station in Kyiv.

Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, is Russia’s key target, said Zelensky in his latest video address. “They hope that control over Kyiv will give them control over Ukraine. This is absolutely absurd – from all perspectives,” he said.

Kyiv extended the curfew due to the risk of potential escalation. It will last from 8 p.m. on March 15 until 7 a.m. on March 17.

The death toll from a Russian missile strike on the Rivne TV tower has grown to 20 people. Nine were injured.