The situation as of 08:00, March 4, 2022
OPERATIONAL SITUATION
The Russian aggressor continues to treacherously use the civilian population as a human shield by taking hostages. Contrary to the norms of international humanitarian law, it uses high-powered cluster and fragmentation ammunition in its bombardments. The aggressor actively uses Grad, Smerch and Uragan multiple-launch rocket systems in artillery strikes on populated areas. In Belarus and Transnistria the troops are put on alert, threatening an offensive on Ukraine’s border regions. Zaporizhzhia NPP, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, was shelled overnight by Russian forces, triggering fires in some buildings.
Kyiv and Kyiv region:
A Russian SU-30 aircraft over Irpin was shot down by Ukrainian air defense. Ukrainian defenders successfully recaptured Bucha in Kyiv Oblast, got a foothold there, and raised the Ukrainian flag over the city.
On March 2, a unit of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine seized a Russian reconnaissance and control module 9S932-1 (Barnaul-T) in the northwest direction of Kyiv. At present, the vehicle has been handed over to the 72nd Separate Mechanized Brigade “Chornykh Zaporozhtsiv”. It is already on combat duty.
Special Forces of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine destroyed another 10 enemy BMDs in Gostomel. In total, during the day, special forces destroyed 20 enemy airborne combat vehicles in Gostomel.
North:
On March 3 at about 08:10 a shell hit an oil depot in the territory of the state enterprise “Combinat Astra” in Chernihiv as a result of fire, resulting in the ignition of a tank group with a total capacity of 5 thousand cubic meters of diesel fuel.
Border guards of the 5th Border Guard Detachment of the advance group together with units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine went to the state border line of Ukraine in Sumy region.
Another Russian convoy burned down in the village of Moskovskiy Bobryk, Sumy region, near the border with Poltava region.
The mayor of Okhtyrka reported that Russian forces carried out an air strike on the city’s thermal power plant and railway station.
The State Emergency Service reported that 33 bodies of dead civilians were recovered from under the rubble after Russian airstrikes on residential areas of Chernihiv.
In Sumy, Russian troops damaged a thermal power plant and an electrical substation with two explosions. Residents of the city report being left without heat, water and light.
South:
Ukrainian air defenses shot down a Russian plane trying to fire on a power substation in a village near Zatoka of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi district (Odesa region).
Russian aggressors began to mine Kherson, setting up trip wires in the city center. Eyewitnesses report that they installed trip wires near the building of TV and radio company “Scythia”.
The dry cargo ship “HELT” (under the flag of Panama), owned by Estonia, was fired upon and got a hole below the waterline. The ship began to sink. At 12:18 HELT disappeared from radar.
It should be reminded that yesterday the ships of the Russian Federation demanded from the civilian vessel “HELT” to come to a dangerous zone of the Black Sea that the aggressors could be covered by it as a human shield. Otherwise, Russian ships threatened to open fire. The crew of the sunken ship “HELT” was rescued.
Russian troops in the number of 100 heavy armored vehicles entered Energodar. Before storming the city, the invaders opened fire on civilians, who set up a self-made roadblock to hold back the advance of enemy forces.
As of 18:00, Russian artillery and missile forces began destroying Energodar, which is under the control of the AFU. After the first series of attacks, the city lost power and water supply. The aggressor’ shelling triggered a fire in the training building of the Zaporizhzhia NPP. At 06:20, the fire was extinguished. There were no casualties. The enemy is deliberately targeting the power units, using special Russian tanks with thermal imaging cameras. It is important to note that the loss of control of Zaporizhzhia NPP (6 power units), located in Energodar, can threaten a large-scale man-made catastrophe. Currently, the Zaporizhzhia NPP site is occupied by military forces of the Russian Federation. ZNPP power units retain their integrity, the existing damage to the reactor compartment of Unit 1 does not affect the safety of the power unit. Systems and elements important for NPP safety are in operable condition.
Kharkiv and Kharkiv region:
Fires in more than 40 apartment buildings and private homes broke out after Russian troops shelled Kharkiv. Most of the calls come from the Saltivka district
Russian aircraft destroyed Korotych airfield near Kharkiv. The aerodrome infrastructure and aircraft are out of order.
Russian troops bombed the village of Yakovlivtsi in the Kharkiv region. At least 3 people were killed, 2 of them civilians. Eight people were injured and taken to hospital. 45 houses were damaged, 21 of them were completely destroyed.
A very brutal attack was carried out on the Saltivsky depot, which housed new trams and buses – several units of equipment were destroyed. This is the deliberate destruction of Kharkiv’s infrastructure by Russian troops.
East:
Near Volnovakha, Ukrainian air defenses shot down a Russian SU-34 fighter-bomber.
Mariupol suffered significant damage after a long shelling by Russian aggressors. The city is on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe. The civilian population was left without electricity, water and heat.
West:
In the Volyn region, the Armed Forces are in defensive positions. On the other side of the border there is the 38th Separate Airborne Assault Brigade of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus, which has already been ordered to attack Ukraine. However, the overwhelming majority of its servicemen do not want to do that because of the decline of their morale.
Information confrontation
The enemy hacked the websites of the authorities and local governments of certain regions (South and North) and spread through them false information about the alleged “capitulation and signing of a peace treaty with Russia.”
In Voznesensk, Russian aggressors confiscated mobile phones from four heads of United Territorial Communities. The Russian military can use telephones to create and distribute new fakes on their behalf with a call for surrender.
In the Russian village of Popovka, bordering the Krasnopil district of the Sumy region, the Russian Grads was deployed towards the Russian Federation while moving from the Ukrainian border. Thus, the Russian aggressor is trying to create provocation and shelling of their territory – in order to accuse Ukraine of attacking the civilian population of Russia.
HUMANITARIAN SITUATION
On March 3, much of the civilian infrastructure in many Ukrainian cities was affected.
The Russian army is carrying out rocket attacks on the city of Kyiv. A warehouse with cosmetics was set on fire 20 km from Kyiv on the Zhytomyr highway. The aggressors also fired on houses in the village of Stoyanka near Kyiv.
The Sedniv community (Chernihiv region) found itself under occupation – the most difficult situation was in the village of Chernysh, whose residents have not left their basements for 7 days. The power supply was cut off four days ago. At least 47 people were killed in Russian air strikes in Chernihiv on March 3. Also 18 people were injured. Rescue work has been temporarily suspended due to heavy shelling. Civilians may also be killed and injured under the rubble. The Russian army attacked two schools in Chernihiv, killing nine and injuring four.
In Okhtyrka (Sumy region) almost half of the city was destroyed by artillery shelling. Russian aircraft are shelling a peaceful Ukrainian city, including residential areas. The Okhtyrka thermal power plant, which supplies electricity and heat to the entire city, was severely damaged.
There are constant attacks of peaceful districts, neighbourhoods, schools and infrastructure in Kharkiv. A member of the OSCE monitoring mission in Ukraine, Maryna Fenina was killed in one of the rocket attacks. In the district of North Saltivka in Kharkiv, buildings and structures were destroyed, as a result of shelling of high-rise residential buildings. The Russian forces bombed and destroyed the village of Yakovlivtsi near Kharkiv. At least three people were killed, two of them civilians. Russian aircraft also bombed Okhtyrka, and local residents were left without heat.
As a result of the air strike in Izyum, 8 people were killed, 2 of them children. The centre of the city suffered significant destruction, and the windows of the Executive Committee office were blown out.
The aggressors began to mine the centre of Kherson. They also shelled the town of Energodar, where is located Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, at least two injured civilians clearly known. The city was left without water supply. There is also a lack of light in some areas of the city.
Mariupol is on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe, no electricity, no water supply, no possibility to bake bread, less and less food. There are also problems of food delivery in small towns throughout the region. The aggressors damaged railway services, destroyed bridges and smashed trains to prevent the evacuation of women, children, the elderly, and the evacuation of the wounded. There are more than 200 injured civilians in the city’s hospitals.
Some 1,000 people have been evacuated from Volnovakha and the district, but the enemy is firing on cars of civilians, who attempting to leave the combat zone.
INTERNATIONAL REACTION
On March 3, 2022, the international community continued to act in connection with the Russian aggression on the territory of Ukraine.
Ukraine continues to receive financial and military-technical support. The European Union has signed a Memorandum with Ukraine on providing 1.2 billion euros of macrofinancial aid.
Canada and France have indicated that they intend to provide more lethal weapons to Ukraine. Canada will transfer 4,500 M-72 LAW grenade launchers, 7,500 hand grenades and $800,000 for detailed satellite imagery. France will send advanced anti-tank missile systems MMP and Enforcer.
Russia is moving to a state with which large companies do not want to cooperate.
– Spotify Service closes its office in the Russian Federation.
– The automobile company Škoda made the decision that it immediately stops the production of automobiles on the territory of Russia. The same applies to the export of motor vehicles to the Russian Federation.
– IKEA temporarily suspends its work in Russia and stops operations with the Russian Federation and Belarus.
– The game developer Electronic Arts has stated that it will remove Russian national teams and clubs from its popular sports games, in particular, three versions of NHL and FIFA.
The United States is initiating packages of additional sanctions against Russian Federation. In particular, sanctions were imposed against Russian oligarchs: businessmen Arkady and Borys Rotenberg, billionaire Alisher Usmanov, Transneft President Mykola Tokarev, “Putin’s cook” Yevhen Prigogine, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov, chairman of WEB.RF Bank Igor Shuvalov, chairman of Rostech Serhiy Chemezov and Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov. It is reported that with the exception of Peskov and Usmanov, the sanctions will affect the wives and children of the above-mentioned oligarchs. Additional sanctions were imposed on 42 Russian companies. The list mainly includes enterprises engaged in the manufacture of artillery and missile equipment, weapons for air defence, aircraft equipment, etc. Republican senators Marco Rubio and Chuck Grassley introduced the HEROIAM SLAVA bill. The sanctions are aimed at depriving “Rosneft”, “Gazprom”, “Rosatom”, “Aeroflot” and RT of access to United States capital.
The International Energy Agency has developed a plan on how the European Union can reduce Russian gas imports, given that Russia uses its own natural gas resources as economic and political weapons.
The IAEA Board of Governors (International Atomic Energy Agency) has adopted a resolution condemning Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and demanding that the Russian Federation immediately stop all illegal actions threatening Ukraine’s nuclear facilities.
Several important developments have also taken place in the area of humanitarian assistance. It was reported that more than 500 foreign medical colleagues (doctors, nurses and paramedics) from EU countries, Great Britain, Switzerland, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Israel, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Jordan, Brazil and other countries are ready to provide medical care in Ukraine. An Israeli volunteer organization called United Hatzalah shipped humanitarian aid for Ukrainian refugees to the Ukrainian border with Moldova, where they would be assisted by 40 doctors from Israel. Polish tourist operators Rainbow and TUI are ready to offer free charter flights from resorts for Ukrainian citizens stuck there due to the closed airspace of Ukraine. It became known that citizens with a Ukrainian passport or ID card are exempt from payment for railway tickets to Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, France, Belgium and Denmark. Deutsche Bahn has stated that it was ready to add cars to the trains running from Poland to Berlin and, if necessary, to launch additional trains to increase capacity. Refugees from Ukraine also received the right to live and work in the EU for three years. The European Union grants the right to live, work, health care, housing and education for up to one year. If the war continues for a long time or refugees are unable to return safely to Ukraine, this status may be extended for a further two years.
The world supports Ukraine in other ways as well. For example, government representatives from Denmark, the Netherlands and Poland supported Russia’s exclusion from institutional and intergovernmental relations related to education. In Vilnius the street, where is located the Russian embassy, is planned to be renamed Heroes of Ukraine Street. The authorities of the Canadian capital, Ottawa, have placed yellow and blue “Free Ukraine” signs next to other road signs on the street where the Embassy of the Russian Federation is located.