Zelensky Ousts Key Staffers as UKR’s War Against RU Cont; What We Know About Zircon Missiles – RU’s Latest Threat; RU Trying to Advance West of Avdiivka, Has Made Little Progress; 79 Combat Clashes on Battlefield; RU Loses: 29 Tanks, 730 Sold, UKR Downs 9 Drones Over Night, LIVE UPDATES and LOTS MORE

By admin On Mar 30, 2024

NY POST: Zelensky ousts key staffers as Ukraine’s war against Russia continues:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky continued to clean house Saturday even as Russia bombarded the nation, carrying out 75 airstrikes in just 24 hours.

Zelensky ousted two key staffers — his top aide, Serhiy Shefir, along with the nation’s Commissioner for Soldiers’ Rights, Alyona Verbytska, along with four other government workers.

No reasons were offered for their expulsions, The Kyiv Independent reported.

The latest personnel changes come just a day after Zelensky dismissed Andrii Smirnov and Oleksii Dniprov as the deputy heads of his office and are the latest in a series of changes he’s made at the top of the military and government in recent months.

Shefir was appointed as Zelensky’s advisor soon after he assumed the presidential office in May 2019. A personal friend of Zelensky’s, he worked as a producer on “Servant of the People,” the comedy series that shot Zelensky to fame, in which he played a high-school history teacher who becomes Ukraine’s top politician.

In 2021, Shefir survived an assassination attempt, believed to have been orchestrated by the Kremlin.

Zelensky also let go of Natalia Pushkaryova, the president’s external commissioner for volunteer activities and three advisors who were not part of his staff, including Ukrainian entrepreneur Mykhailo Radutsky and economist Oleh Ustensko.

On Tuesday, Zelensky replaced National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov with the chief of his Foreign Intelligence Service, Oleksandr Lytvynenko. —>READ MORE HERE

What we know about hypersonic Zircon missiles – Russia’s latest threat:

While Russian missile strikes on Kyiv have become horrifyingly routine during the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the attack that occurred on March 25 was a rare event.

Air raid sirens that normally give people more than enough time to grab a coat and get to the nearest shelter before missiles reach the airspace above them had only been sounding for a matter of seconds when a series of explosions rocked the capital.

Those sounds were Kyiv’s air defenses intercepting what were reportedly two Russian 3M22 Zircon missiles, parts of which fell to the ground in several districts of the city, injuring two people and destroying parts of the Kyiv State Academy of Decorative and Applied Arts.

While the exact type of missile was not definitively confirmed as a Zircon by authorities, initial analysis of the debris strongly suggested it was.

Two days after the attack, spokesperson for Ukraine’s Operational Command South, Natalia Humeniuk, warned that Russia had “several dozen such missiles stockpiled at military hubs like (occupied) Crimea.”

“They can continue sporadic terror attacks, including targeting the capital,” she added.

What is a Zircon?

The Zircon missile is a relatively new entrant into Russia’s arsenal of weapons targeting cities like Kyiv, meaning there’s relatively little information on it so far.

“Statements of the Russians regarding Zircon contain a significant share of propaganda and psychological influence,” Andrii Kharuk, a historian and weapons expert, told Kyiv Independent.