Status: 04.03.2022 6:10 p.m
Hardly any food, no electricity and no water – in view of the desperate situation in Mariupol, the mayor has asked for military support. Several explosions were heard in Kyiv in the afternoon.
In the encircled port city of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine, the situation is apparently becoming increasingly dramatic. Food ran out, there was no running water, no heating, no electricity, the city’s mayor Vadym Boychenko said in a video. He asked for military support and a corridor through which civilians could get to safety.
Deputy Mayor Sergei Orlov spoke in an interview with the daily topics of more than 40 hours of continuous shelling – schools and hospitals are said to have been hit. “Putin is pursuing a war like that in Aleppo,” Orlov said on BBC radio, according to the AFP news agency. “I am convinced he wants to destroy Ukraine and Mariupol is on the way to be destroyed.”
conflicting parties as a source
Information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by official bodies of the Russian and Ukrainian conflict parties cannot be directly checked by an independent body in the current situation.
Selenskyj advisers cautiously confident
On the other hand, the balance of power appears to be different in the city of Mykolayiv west of Mariupol: According to the Ukrainian regional authorities, Russian troops were driven out there. But fighting continues in the outskirts, said Governor Vitalii Kim. He had announced in the morning that Russian soldiers had advanced into the city on the Black Sea. He later explained that the Russian army’s advances had been repelled.
The adviser to the Ukrainian President, Olexii Arestovych, was cautiously confident about developments in Mykolayiv. The metropolis of Odessa, further to the west, is also not exposed to any immediate danger. He described the situation in Mariupol as “under control”. The British Ministry of Defense also reported this. According to the Reuters news agency, the civilian infrastructure continues to be subject to intense shelling by the Russian military.
“Electricity and water supply are destroyed”: Sergei Orlov, deputy mayor of Mariupol, on the situation on site
daily topics 10:30 p.m., 4.3.2022
Several explosions in Kyiv
According to AFP information, Russia intensified its attacks on Friday – according to Reuters, the shelling of the cities of Kharkiv and Chernihiv was intensified again. However, the main efforts of the occupiers were concentrated on the encirclement of Kiev, according to a report by the Ukrainian armed forces in the morning. Accordingly, Russian units moved ever closer to the capital. In the afternoon, several explosions were heard in rapid succession in the city. Sirens warned of an attack. The exact location of the explosions has not yet been located.
Air raid alarms were also raised several times during the night in Kyiv. Residents were to take shelter in air raid shelters.
The Ukrainian side reported a success from the strategically important Hostomel airfield north-west of Kyiv. Accordingly, the Russian troops would have withdrawn from there. The airport has been the scene of combat since the beginning of the invasion. Paratroopers had been dropped there, presumably to secure the landing of Russian transport planes – that failed.
Navy ship self sunk
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov reported that the Navy itself sunk its flagship, Hetman Sahaydachny, to keep it from falling into enemy hands. The frigate was anchored for repairs.
According to Resnikov, despite increased attacks by Russia, Ukrainian forces are holding up against the attackers in strategically important locations, such as in the north-eastern Ukrainian regions of Sumy and Chernihiv. “The enemy is confused and intimidated,” Resnikov wrote on Facebook.
Ukrainian forces also captured large amounts of military equipment and weapons and killed more than 10,000 Russian soldiers, he claimed. Shortly before, the Ukrainian general staff had spoken of a good 9,100 opponents killed. Western experts question these high numbers. The Russian Defense Ministry spoke of 498 fallen soldiers on Wednesday. Information on your own and enemy losses is generally considered unreliable and is often part of the propanda.