3 March 2022: a day of strikes across Ukraine's regions
From Kharkiv and Chernihiv to the Black Sea coast, the regions bore the war's weight in the days around 3 March 2022.
What did the war look like from Ukraine's regions on 3 March 2022? Not as a single front, but as a series of strikes on cities, ports and campuses far from one another, each reported by local authorities.
Kharkiv and Chernihiv
In Kharkiv, a Russian shell struck a dormitory at the Academy of Culture, part of the National University of Kharkiv, on 3 March 2022. Thirteen students were killed. Five of the dead were foreign students: four Chinese and one Indian. The day before, on 2 March, Russian forces had launched airstrikes on the university and on a local police department.
In Chernihiv, the governor of Chernihiv Oblast, Vyacheslav Chaus, said on 3 March that at least 33 people had been killed and at least 18 others injured in Russian airstrikes on residential areas. On 2 March, two Kalibr cruise missiles had struck a hospital in the city after Russian troops were forced to retreat. Earlier, on 1 March, a senior Ukrainian territorial defence forces official said Belarusian Ground Forces units had entered northern Chernihiv Oblast. The Ukrainian presidential office said there was no evidence of this, and Belarus had previously said it would not send its armed forces to Ukraine.
The Black Sea coast
The south saw fighting at sea and in port. On 3 March, the Ukrainian Navy patrol vessel Sloviansk was destroyed in a Russian anti-ship missile strike off the Port of Odesa, and all of its crew disappeared. The same day, the Estonian cargo ship MV Helt sank near the Port of Odesa after an explosion. All six crew members were rescued, according to authorities, and Estonian Foreign Minister Eva-Maria Liimets said an investigation would take place.
On 2 March, a missile struck the Bangladeshi-flagged cargo ship Banglar Samriddhi, docked at the Port of Olvia in Mykolaiv Oblast, and killed a Bangladeshi engineer. Also on 2 March, Russian Ground Forces said they had captured the port of Kherson. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense denied the claim and said the battle was continuing.
In Mariupol, the mayor reported on 2 March mass casualties and a water outage caused by what he described as non-stop Russian bombardments.
Energy and the military toll
On 2 March, Russia said its troops had captured the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that Russia had communicated that the plant was under its control and that personnel there were continuing to perform their normal duties.
The military cost was also becoming clear. On 1 March, Ukraine confirmed that more than 70 troops had been killed in a Russian ballistic missile strike on a base in Okhtyrka, Sumy Oblast, the previous day. It was the largest loss of life for Ukrainian forces in a single attack since the invasion began.
A map of many fronts
Taken together, the reports from 1 to 3 March 2022 show the invasion reaching universities, hospitals, residential districts, ports and a nuclear plant across several oblasts. The accounts came from regional governors, mayors, the Ukrainian military and foreign governments, and in several cases, such as Kherson and Belarusian involvement, the claims were disputed on the spot.
