March 26, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

A counterattack by Ukrainian forces 63 miles (103 kilometers) northwest of Mariupol has led to the recapture of two villages from Russian forces, according to the Zaporizhzhia regional military administration.

"The Melitopol Territorial Defense Battalion, together with other units of the Zaporizizhia Defense Forces, have successfully liberated the villages of Poltavka and Malynivka east of Huliaipole from the Russian occupiers," the administration said on their Telegram channel Saturday evening.

Sensory satellite data from the NASA's Fire Information for Resource Management System provided additional evidence, and confirmation, that intense fighting took place in the two villages.

The data showed that dozens of explosions took place in the two villages over the last 14 hours.

Russia will not "subdue" the captured city of Slavutych, a defiant Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday.

Russian forces that entered the city are encountering the same spirit of resistance evident in other parts of the country, the president said in a video posted to social media.

"Free Slavutych which the invaders cannot subdue," he said. 

Earlier Saturday, hundreds of locals amassed in the city square in a protest following the arrival of Russian troops.

Images and video geolocated by CNN showed a crowd of about several hundred people.

"Slavutych is Ukraine!" they chanted in the main square. "Glory to Ukraine."

Zelensky said every "demonstration of our resistance ... proves that Ukraine is a country full of life."

Russian forces briefly detained the city's mayor but eventually released him, according to a statement from Ukrainian political party Sluha Narodu. 

The UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), condemned Russia's seizure of the city, which was built to house workers of the nearby Chornobyl nuclear power plant. 

The IAEA said in a statement it was closely monitoring the situation. The agency's director general, Rafael Mariano Grossi, voiced concerns about the ability of power plant staff to return safely to their homes.

Some background: The arrival of Russian forces in Slavutych came after several days of shelling against the city, which is strategically located close to the Dnieper River, about 95 miles (150 kilometers) north of Kyiv and close to the border with Belarus.

According to local officials, the city has been isolated almost since the beginning of the Russian invasion.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky today reiterated his plea for international partners to step up their military assistance, saying his country only asks for 1% of NATO's tanks and planes.

In a Saturday video message posted to social media, Zelensky said the need to strengthen common security in Europe was raised during his two conversations with Polish President Andrezj Duda on Saturday. 

Zelensky lamented the fact Ukraine has been waiting for 31 days for this assistance, saying it raises the question of who exactly "is ruling the Euro-Atlantic Alliance."

He called on Ukraine's international partners to "rally and activate their support" for the country, stressing Europe's safety and security hinges on it.

Two seriously injured children and an infant with pneumonia were among 5,208 people evacuated Saturday through humanitarian corridors, says Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.

Tymoshenko said 4,331 residents of the besieged city of Mariupol have reached the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia.

Ambulances took the two children and the infant to a Zaporizhzhia hospital, he said.

Among those evacuated Saturday were 351 people from the Kyiv region and 256 from the Luhansk region, the latter of which has received 80 tons of humanitarian aid, according to Tymoshenko.

Explosions were reported this evening in Ukraine's western Volyn oblast, says the head of the regional military administration there.

The blasts were heard about 9 p.m. local time after four air-launched missiles were fired from the territory of Belarus, according to Yurii Pohuliako.

"Three of four rockets were shot down in the sky over Volyn," he said. 

CNN could not immediately verify the report.

Volyn region is in the northwest corner of Ukraine, and borders NATO member Poland and Russian ally Belarus.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba today criticized Russia's strike of a Holocaust memorial site near the city of Kharkiv.

"Why Russia keeps attacking Holocaust memorials in Ukraine?" Kuleba asked in a tweet, adding he expects Israel to condemn what he called an act of "barbarism." 

Russian shelling damaged a Menorah monument dedicated to "the memory of over 15,000 Jews murdered by the Nazis," the foreign minister wrote.

Earlier this month, Russian air strikes hit the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center in Kyiv, where an estimated 70,000 to 100,000 people were shot by the Nazis.

Actor and filmmaker Sean Penn, speaking with CNN's Jim Acosta from Warsaw, Poland, predicted today Ukraine "will win this fight."

"No question in my mind," said Penn, who was reportedly in the Ukraine working on a documentary when Russian forces invaded. "And the question will be, where will we be when they did."

Penn, who founded the charity CORE (Community Organized Relief Effort) after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, said he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and praised the country's "extraordinary courage and unification."

"What I would say is, I can't imagine any human being would have fully known that they were born for this moment until this moment would have happened," he said of the Ukrainian president.

Penn also said he hopes the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognizes the Ukrainian crisis when it presents the Oscars tomorrow, possibly by allowing Zelensky to speak via a video link.

"There is nothing greater that the Academy Awards could do than to give him that opportunity to talk to all of us," Penn said.

President Joe Biden spoke via phone with Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya today aboard Air Force One and thanked her for attending his speech in Warsaw, according to the White House. 

"The President underscored the continued support of the United States for the Belarusian people in defending and advancing human rights, including freedom of expression, and free and fair elections," according to the White House readout. 

Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi called for air defense of Ukraine after a series of Russian missiles struck a fuel storage facility and a military infrastructure site in the western Ukrainian city on Saturday. 

"We don't know the targets of the Russian missiles, who were launched from the city of Sevastopol today. And so often today they hit not only Lviv but also other sites in our country. We are all in the same situation, the sooner we have better quality weapons as well as air defense, the safer our cities and citizens including you will be," Sadovyi told a press briefing on Saturday evening. 

Sadovyi wrapped up the briefing by asking those listening to "go into the shelter right away," stressing "we don't know what is going to happen now."