My friend in Christchurch told me that a NATO Airbus A330 aircraft landed at the Christchurch International Airport, possibly carrying diplomats.

NATO planes don't visit New Zealand very often, so its probably an important trip.

He sent me these photos.

Changes on the frontline in the second week of March 2025 (March 8-14):

+ ~395.41km² in favour of Russia
+ ~20.90km² in favour of Ukraine

That's an average of:
+ ~56.49km² in favour of Russia per day
+ ~2.99km² in favour of Ukraine per day

During the first week of March the daily average advances for each side were:
+ ~6.87km² in favour of Russia per day
+ ~2.13km² in favour of Ukraine per day

This means that Russia's average daily rate of advance has increased by around 722.27%, while Ukraine's has increased by around 40.38%.

Breakdown by regions:

Russia:
Kursk Oblast: + ~352.00km²
Donetsk Oblast: + ~16.22km²
Sumy Oblast: + ~14.20km²
Kharkiv Oblast: + ~12.02km²
Luhansk Oblast: + ~0.97km²

Ukraine:
Donetsk Oblast: + ~20.90km²

As for settlements captured in the past week:

Russia has captured:
Loknya (Kursk Oblast)
Nikolskii (Kursk Oblast)
Viktorovka (Kursk Oblast)
Nikolaevka (Kursk Oblast)
Malaya Loknya (Kursk Oblast)
Kamyshevka (Kursk Oblast)
Naydenov (Kursk Oblast)
Kositsa (Kursk Oblast)
Cherkasskoe Porechnoe (Kursk Oblast)
Pravda (Kursk Oblast)
Ivashkovskii (Kursk Oblast)
Yuzhnyi (Kursk Oblast)
Berdin (Kursk Oblast)
Kruglik (Kursk Oblast)
Martynovka (Kursk Oblast)
Mikhailovka (Kursk Oblast)
Zazulevka (Kursk Oblast)
Kubatkin (Kursk Oblast)
Kazachya Loknya (Kursk Oblast)
Knyazhiy 1st (Kursk Oblast)
Knyazhiy 2nd (Kursk Oblast)
Knyazhii (Kursk Oblast)
Zaoleshenka (Kursk Oblast)
Sudzha (Kursk Oblast)
Goncharovka (Kursk Oblast)
Rubanshchina (Kursk Oblast)
Zamoste (Kursk Oblast)
Makhnovka (Kursk Oblast)
Dmitriukov (Kursk Oblast)
Kolmakov (Kursk Oblast)
Bondarevka (Kursk Oblast)
Mirnyi (Kursk Oblast)
Kurilovka (Kursk Oblast)
Melovoi (Kursk Oblast)
Zahrydove (Kharkiv Oblast)
Hryhorivka (Donetsk Oblast)
Kostyantynopil (Donetsk Oblast)
Dniproenerhiya (Donetsk Oblast)

Ukraine has captured:
Novospaske (Donetsk Oblast)

Colour code for the maps:
Yellow = Russian advances in the past week
Blue = Ukrainian advances in the past week

Note: some of these changes will have occurred before the week began, so don't take these numbers as exact figures of the change in territorial control.

At least 2 Russian Geran-2 drones struck Chernihiv City last night.

At least 2 Russian Geran-2 drones struck the port area of Chornomorsk, Odesa Oblast.

Sumy last night during Russia's Geran-2 drone attacks. Locals reported at least 10 explosions in the city.

A Ukrainian UAV struck the Volgograd oil refinery during a large scale attack last night. A large fire has broken out at the impact site.

Locals reported at least 10 explosions, although most of these were likely interceptions.

Ukrainian UAVs previously struck this refinery on January 31, 2025, which resulted in a fire that lasted for four days.

As of 2024, the Volgograd Oil Refinery processes an average of 13.7 MM tonnes of oil per year, making up approximately 5.1% of the total refining volume at Russian refineries.