March, 04

Fighting continues around Kyiv, as the Russian troops are trying to find a way into the city. The main forces remain a dozen kilometers away from the capital and trying to get to the Zhytomyr highway. Weather conditions make it impossible for armored vehicles to move off-road, and Russian troops are becoming an easy target for artillery, drones and anti-tank weapons on the roads. Heavy fighting continues around Mykolaiv. On March 4, the Russian troops tried to enter the city but were repelled from the city by the evening. Meanwhile, the Russian side further controls the town of Voznesensk in the Mykolaiv Region which could lead to the capture of another nuclear power plant in Yuzhnoukrainsk. Kherson is currently under Russian control. Continuous fighting is taking place around Mariupol, Kharkiv, Sumy – all remaining under heavy shelling. In Zhytomyr, a missile strike destroyed a school and a fire broke out in the university building in Irpin as a result of the shelling. This is not the first case of destruction of an educational institution, hospitals and other civilian facilities are also being attacked.

 The Russian forces seized control of television towers in Kherson and Melitopol, broadcasting Russian channels instead of Ukrainian ones. Facebook, Twitter, and almost all opposition media outlets were shut down in Russia last night. As of today, it is difficult to access Russian websites in Ukraine, and Ukrainian websites in Russia and Crimea. Tools such like VPN do not enable access. There is no stable mobile communication in the cities where the fighting is taking place. In the Kherson region, the Russian side blocked Ukrainian mobile operators, while Ukrainian operators have blocked the ability to call from Ukrainian numbers to Russia and Belarus in order to block intelligence channels. More and more observers are pointing out that the spreading information in Russia about the casualties will not necessarily lead to an end of the war. On the contrary, it is expected that propaganda will use this information for revenge call, thus mobilizing the population in Russia. However, the scale of the losses could be a factor in the decline of the morale of Russians, including Russian soldiers.

ECOLOGY. The Russian forces are trying to establish control over all nuclear power plants in Ukraine. The night battle near the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant and the resulting fire could become a turning point in understanding the scale of Russia’s attack on Ukraine’s nuclear energy sector.
NATO Foreign Ministers during which no decision was taken on blocking the airspace over Ukraine. As of now, only one of the 6 reactors at the Zaporizhzhya NPP is operating. According to operative information, the Yuzhnoukrayinska NPP in the Mykolaiv area could be the next station seized by the Russian forces.