Kharkiv strike and disbursement of first tranche of €50 billion package: highlights for March 20

Strike on Kharkiv

At about 13:00, the Russian occupiers struck at the Kholodnohirskyi district of Kharkiv. A very large fire broke out at the site of the attack, and people were searched for under the rubble. As of 21:30 on March 20, 9 people were injured in the attack. In addition, five people have been reported dead.

An eight-story building and a production shop for furniture and paint products were also damaged. According to the regional prosecutor's office, the occupiers fired a Kh-59 missile at the city. Among the victims were civilians and employees of the enterprise.

Allocation of a tranche from the European Union

The European Union has transferred the first tranche of €4.5 billion to Ukraine under the Ukraine Facility program. The EU will transfer 50 billion euros under this program in 2024-2027. The second payment will be received in April.

In addition, the European Commission has officially proposed to transfer to Ukraine 2.5 to 3 billion euros a year from the proceeds of the frozen assets of the Russian Central Bank. 90% of this amount is to be used through the European Peace Fund to purchase weapons for Ukraine. The rest will be used for recovery and reconstruction.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that withdrawing income from frozen Russian assets to finance Ukraine would lead to “inevitable losses” and “decades of litigation” for the European Union.

Support for higher education reform

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has supported in the first reading a draft law on changes to the financing of higher education starting in 2024. The document provides for a reduction in the volume of state orders for students for higher education institutions and introduces grants and long-term loans for education.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education has decided to suspend the process of merging higher education institutions in Ukraine while the admission campaign continues.

The couple involved in the deportation of their children lives near Kyiv without suspicion

Denys and Yulia Suprun, employees of Kherson Higher Vocational School No. 2, who were involved in the deportation of Ukrainian children from occupied Kherson, now live in Brovary, the Kyiv region.

In October 2022, the Supruns, who remained working at Kherson Vocational School No. 2, offered the students of the school to go on “vacation” to the occupied Crimea. Four out of nine children managed to return from this “vacation”.

Although the SBU is investigating this episode of deportation of children, the couple is not currently under investigation.

Read more about this case in the hromadske investigation.

Other important news of the day

• The government will provide a subsidy for renting housing for IDPs.
• The Unified Veteran Line has been launched in Ukraine to help defenders.
• The rules that limited their freedom of speech were excluded from the military social security bill.
• “Tusk, what are you feeding the Polish people?”: more than 70 thousand farmers block roads across Poland.
• The Rada supported the renaming of Chervonohrad, Brovary, and more than 100 other cities and villages.
• The Kyiv Rye Market is to be leased out.