news.liga.net wrote:A report as of 10:00 a.m. on 4 March by journalist Yuriy Butusov.
Russia has been defeated in the battle for Kyiv and is rushing all forces south to seize Mariupol, Donbass, Mykolaiv, Odessa, and the entire Black Sea coast of Ukraine.
1. Russian Command is concentrating its efforts to seize and entrench itself in the south and east of Ukraine, in Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odessa regions, to destroy the Ukrainian economy by blockading the ports.
2. Mariupol remains the only city currently in the way of Putin's plans to take over eastern Ukraine. Mariupol has fallen into an operational encirclement and heavy fighting is taking place over the city. Mariupol is a key city in Donbass, a port and an industrial centre, and it cannot be surrendered categorically. The enemy is constantly pounding the city with aircraft and artillery. All life-support systems have been destroyed, the city is in humanitarian disaster, this is done to cause civilians to flee and facilitate the storming of the city. The well-known regiment of the National Guard, the Armed Forces Marines and other defence forces are heroically defending the city despite the powerful attacks of the enemy.
3. The enemy has occupied Energodar and is threatening to disconnect the nuclear power plant from the Ukrainian energy system and power supply to industry.
4. The enemy has occupied Kherson and fighting is taking place in the city area.
5. The Armed Forces of Ukraine firmly hold Volnovakha and repel attacks near Orekhovo, maintaining a bridgehead on the approaches to Mariupol, but the Russian command is trying with all its might to push our forces as far away from Mariupol as possible.
6. The Russian offensive on Mykolaiv and Voznesensk is repulsed with heavy losses, but new enemy reserves continue to advance in that direction.
7. Direct attacks on Kharkiv are successfully repelled, with the entire perimeter of the city's defences firmly controlled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Russian commanders continue their attacks west of Kharkiv.
8. East of Kharkiv, the Russians have occupied Balakleya and are threatening to attack Izyum and encircle Kharkiv from the east, overhanging the northern flank of the OOS grouping in Donbas. The Ukrainian Armed Forces effectively smash the occupiers in these areas, while the Russians shell populated areas.
9. Russia continues to occupy an incursion west of Kyiv, but the AFU counterstrike at Makarov and dislodge the Russians from the Zhytomyr highway, inflicting heavy losses on the occupiers, and the Russians are moving new reserves into the area.
10. Direct attacks on Kiev have ceased, AFU are active and effective fighting in the Gostomel area, enemy losses in the Kyiv area are very high, Armed Forces of Ukraine knocked out the Russians from many towns, including Irpen and part of Bucha.
11. The heroic defence of Chernihiv continues, the enemy is constantly shelling the city.
12. The heroic defence of Sumy and Akhtyrka, cities under Russian fire, continues. The enemy suffered huge losses in Sumy.
13. To fight against the people of Ukraine, Russia has employed total terror tactics - aircraft and artillery are destroying the civilian life support system of Ukrainian cities. Planes have bombed the Akhtyrska thermal power plant, power substations in Sumy, Mariupol and Kharkiv. Ukrainian mobile phones in the occupied territories are being turned off to cut off communication between residents. Rocket attacks are being launched against densely populated residential areas in all Ukrainian cities of central and eastern Ukraine, destroying dozens of residential buildings, schools, and public buildings.