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What happened in Ukraine on 4 March 2022?
Summary
A look back at a day of NATO's refusal on a no-fly zone, fighting around Mykolaiv and Enerhodar, and new sanctions and restrictions.
What did the ninth day of the Russian invasion bring? On 4 March 2022, the biggest political argument concerned airspace, while fighting continued on several fronts.
NATO announced that it would not declare a no-fly zone over Ukraine, because such a declaration could open an avenue for escalation by enabling NATO nations to potentially fire upon Russian aircraft in the area. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the decision. He said that people who died from that day onwards would also die because of the alliance's weakness. Separately, Ukraine became a contributor to NATO's Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence, by a unanimous vote.
Fighting on the ground
Ukrainian officials confirmed that Russian forces had captured the power plant at Enerhodar. Russia renewed its assault on Mykolaiv with naval gunfire support, and the Ukrainian Navy scuttled its flagship frigate, Hetman Sahaidachny, in the port to prevent its capture. Ukrainian air defences shot down a Russian Su-25 jet over Volnovakha in Donetsk Oblast. Near Kyiv, Russian troops shot and wounded Sky News chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay.
Ramzan Kadyrov, head of the Chechen Republic, called on President Vladimir Putin to let his forces seize Ukraine's major cities, calling it the only way to save the Russian people and the state.
Pressure beyond the front
Italian police seized the yacht of Russian oligarch Alexei Mordashov at the port of Imperia. A yacht owned by Putin associate Gennady Timchenko was blocked there and expected to be seized shortly. The European Union had sanctioned both men.
The Czech Republic introduced a 30-day state of emergency as thousands of Ukrainian refugees arrived. In Russia, access was blocked to the websites of BBC News, Voice of America, Deutsche Welle and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, as well as to Facebook and Twitter, for spreading what authorities called false information about the "special military operation" in Ukraine.
