Zaporizhzhia strike and Finland's NATO vote, 2 March 2023
A look back at a day when a missile hit a Ukrainian apartment block and Finland's parliament had just backed NATO membership.
What did the news from 2 March 2023 say about the shape of the war and of Europe's security order? Two reports from the day and the day before pointed in different directions: one showed the cost to civilians in Ukraine, the other a formal political step in Finland.
On 2 March 2023, a Russian missile struck an apartment building in the city of Zaporizhzhia. According to Ukrainian police, three civilians were killed and at least four others were injured.
On 1 March 2023, the Finnish Parliament voted 184–7 to formally approve the country's accession to NATO and to adopt the alliance's founding documents. Approval was still pending from Hungary and Turkey, so Finland's membership had not yet been completed.
Taken together, the reports show a day in which civilian housing in a Ukrainian city came under missile attack while one European state moved closer to membership of the military alliance, with the ratification process still unfinished.
