Nine people perished from Russian strikes on Ukraine on March 16

Russian shelling on March 16 killed nine civilians across the Donetsk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Sumy regions. According to the National Police, at least 41 others were injured, with further casualties reported in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

Rescuers in Zaporizhzhia found the body of an elderly woman under the rubble of a house shelled by the Russian military on March 16, 2026

The victims of Russian strikes on March 16 include:

• Two people in Oleksiievo-Druzhkivka, which was targeted by Russian aviation;
• Two people in Oleksandrivka;
• One person from Mykolaivka;
• A 38-year-old woman in Kherson, killed when a drone struck the car she was driving;
• A 67-year-old resident of Zaporizhzhia;
• A 40-year-old man in the Sumy Oblast, who was killed with a Russian drone strike on a grain truck;
• A 48-year-old motorcyclist from the Velyka Pysarivka “hromada,” a local government area that includes one or more nearby settlements, targeted by a Russian drone.

In the Kharkiv Oblast, six people were injured over the past 24 hours: Russian forces injured four residents in Kharkiv city and two others in Merefa and the Izium District.

Another six people were injured in the Donetsk Oblast, including residents of Druzhkivka and neighbors of those killed in Mykolaivka and Oleksiievo-Druzhkivka.

A woman killed in a Russian strike in Mykolaivka, Donetsk region

A woman in Mykolaivka, Donetsk region, gazes at the impact site of a Russian military strike

At least 10 people were injured as a result of Russian shelling in the Kherson Oblast. Among the victims were multiple elderly people from Kherson, specifically the driver of the car, in which a 38-year-old passenger also died. Additionally, three victims from previous strikes by Russia are included in this tally, among whom was a teenager.

In Zaporizhzhia Oblast, due to a Russian strike on the regional center, two women and a teenage girl received injuries.

In Sumy Oblast, March 16 passed with nine victims, the majority of whom were residents of the same-named city hromada, while two were from Shostka hromada.

One elderly woman suffered because of the strike by Russians in the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.

A truck, in which the driver died, is burning in the Sumy region after a Russian drone strike

To provide background, Russian shelling on March 15 killed three civilians. In total, during more than four years of the full-scale war, over 15,000 civilians have been killed according to official figures alone.

In other news, earlier, the Ukrainian national team and several other countries boycotted the opening and closing ceremonies of the Paralympics in protest against the participation of Russian and Belarusian delegations competing under their national flags.

AP reported that the president of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), Andrew Parsons, is disappointed by Ukraine’s National Paralympic Committee’s complaints during the Milan Cortina Games, calling them an attempt to shift the focus from sports to politics.

“I do hope this is a lesson learned also for those NPCs that have chosen to focus more on the political side than on the sport side, because sport has prevailed,” he said.

Representatives of the Ukrainian team faced continuous pressure from the International Paralympic Committee. Specifically, the organizers of the 2026 Paralympics prohibited Ukrainian athletes from wearing uniforms featuring their country’s map. Ukrainian biathlete Oleksandra Kononova also received an official warning for wearing “anti-war” earrings inscribed with “Stop War.”

Valerii Sushkevych, president of the Ukraine National Paralympic Committee, told the AP in a telephone interview on Sunday that calling for peace and an end to the war was not a political statement but a human rights issue.

“If people in the world want to live in peace, it’s human rights, it’s not political,” Sushkevych said.

Sushkevych stressed to Parsons that the ceremonies are not sporting competitions and are used by the IPC as a political event, allowing the participation of a nation that “can’t be present here” because of the occupation of another country.

Sushkevych said the complaints were made to the IPC to defend its athletes because they were being subjected to what he called “discrimination” and biased behavior against the Ukrainians. He said they were only complaining about “facts.”

His remarks imply that there is nothing wrong with occupying foreign territory, killing civilians, suggesting that international crimes are entirely unrelated to sports, and participants of the aggression can be allowed to participate in the Paralympics.

A photo collage of Russian athletes who fought against Ukraine and are involved in Paralympic sports. Credit: Suspilne

Parsons said it was expected that some nations weren’t happy with the return of the Russian flag, but he felt that the “vast majority” of the national Paralympic committees focused on sport, “because the sport element of it is what helps us fulfill our mission, which is to make for a more inclusive world through Para sport, and not external politics.”

Parsons announced on March 6 that Russian soldiers injured in the war with Ukraine would be allowed to compete at future Paralympic Games, BBC Sport reported. 

The Russian flag flew at the Paralympics for the first time since the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, and the anthem was played for the first time at a major global sporting event since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

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