Mykolaiv, Enerhodar and Volnovakha: Ukraine's front on 4 March 2022
A look back at a day of fighting in the south and east, from a scuttled frigate to a burning nuclear plant.
What did the war look like across Ukraine's regions on 4 March 2022? In the south and east it was a day of fighting around ports, cities and a nuclear power station.
Mykolaiv
In Mykolaiv, the Ukrainian Navy scuttled its flagship frigate, the Hetman Sahaidachny, at the port to prevent Russian forces from capturing it. Russia renewed its assault on the city that day, with naval gunfire in support. Ukrainian forces said they had recaptured Mykolaiv Airport.
The fighting followed other blows to shipping and the navy in the area. On 2 March, a missile had struck the Bangladeshi-flagged cargo ship Banglar Samriddhi, docked at the Port of Olvia in Mykolaiv Oblast, killing a Bangladeshi engineer. 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, and Estonia's foreign minister, Eva-Maria Liimets, said an investigation would take place.
Enerhodar
On 4 March, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Enerhodar caught fire after shelling by Russian troops. The fire was later extinguished. Two days earlier, on 2 March, Russia had said its troops had captured the plant, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed then that Russia had communicated that the plant was under its control and that personnel there were continuing their normal duties.
Donetsk Oblast
In the east, Ukrainian air defences shot down a Russian Sukhoi Su-25 jet over Volnovakha in Donetsk Oblast on 4 March.
The preceding days
The toll on civilians in other regions had been mounting. On 3 March, Vyacheslav Chaus, the governor of Chernihiv Oblast, said at least 33 people had been killed and at least 18 injured in Russian airstrikes on residential areas in Chernihiv. The same day in Kharkiv, thirteen students were killed after a Russian shell struck a dormitory at the National University of Kharkiv's Academy of Culture. Five foreign students were among the dead: four Chinese and one Indian.
In Kherson, Russian Ground Forces said on 2 March that they had captured the Black Sea port. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense denied this and said the battle was continuing.
