Ukraine Conflict Monitor
Update
Ukraine war situation update | 7 – 13 March 2026
Russian strikes on Ukraine’s Dniester Hydropower Complex pollute and endanger Moldova’s water supply.
Key stats
1,767 political violence events
8% increase compared to the previous three weeks
128 incidents of violence targeting civilians
7% decrease compared to the previous three weeks
At least 78 fatalities from civilian targeting
28% increase compared to the previous three weeks
Key events
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7 Mar.
Kharkiv — A Russian missile strike kills 11 civilians and injures 15 others in Kharkiv city
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10 Mar.
Bryansk, Russia — A Ukrainian missile strike on a microchip plant kills seven civilians and injures 42 others
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11 Mar.
Sumy — Russian shelling of the district police department in Shostka injures around 40 officers
Key trends
- Russian forces occupied a settlement near Pokrovsk and continued their advances along the international border in the Sumy region, as well as south and east of the Slovyansk-Kramatorsk-Kostiantynivka agglomeration in the Donetsk region.
- Ukrainian forces continued to regain territory in the Dnipropetrovsk region and north of Huliaipole in the Zaporizhia region, where they reclaimed at least three settlements in the area.
- Russian forces launched at least 22 long-range missile and drone attacks, including on the western region of Chernivtsi.
- Russian strikes killed at least 47 civilians in the Kharkiv, Donetsk, Sumy, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Zaporizhia regions. Ukrainian drone strikes reportedly killed 32 civilians in the Russian-controlled parts of the Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhia regions.
Spotlight: A Russian strike on a Ukrainian hydro power plant endangers Moldova’s water supply
Early in the morning on 7 March, Russian drones and missiles targeted the Dniester Hydropower Complex in Ukraine’s Chernivtsi region. Besides causing local power outages, the strike also led to the spilling of oil — either technical oil or missile fuel — from one of the complex’s power plants into the Dniester river, causing disruptions to the downstream water supply in the Republic of Moldova. The set of hydro power plants on the Dniester river represents not only a key remaining power generation source for the now energy-poor Ukraine, but also the source of 80% of Moldova’s fresh water supply.1
The cross-border oil leakage caused by the strikes forced Moldovan authorities to suspend water supply to multiple towns and cities and deploy the national army in support of the cleaning operations and temporary water deliveries to the affected population.2 Moldovan authorities also called for help from Romanian emergency and water management specialists, coordinated cleaning with Ukrainian environmental bodies, and invoked the European Union’s Civil Protection Mechanism, which allows participating states to request emergency assistance coordinated by the European Commission.3 The Russian strikes on the hydroelectric power plant were condemned by both Ukrainian and Moldovan authorities4 and became the subject of criminal complaints on the grounds of environmental pollution and ecocide5 in Moldova’s capital, Chisinau.
The Dniester hydro power plants had generally been a rare target of Russian strikes. ACLED records only one previous strike on the plants in October 2022, although multiple interceptions of drones and missiles in the area point to more attempts to damage them.
Explore the ACLED Conflict Exposure Calculator to assess the number of people affected by armed violence, disaggregated by locations, time period, and actors involved.
