March 2, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

By Aditi Sangal, Adrienne Vogt, Meg Wagner, Jessie Yeung, Adam Renton, Maureen Chowdhury, Jason Kurtz and Mike Hayes, CNN

Updated 4:01 p.m. ET, March 7, 2022
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4:56 a.m. ET, March 2, 2022

Heavy shelling of Mariupol leaves dozens injured, mayor says

Fierce fighting is continuing around Mariupol, as Russian and Russian-backed separatist forces have surrounded the southern Ukrainian city of about 400,000 people on three sides. 

Residents reported heavy shelling overnight, but Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said Ukrainian authorities were able to restore some mobile communications despite working as the city was being shelled and shot at.

Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said early Wednesday that the number of wounded civilians "is growing every day."

"Today there are 128 people in our hospitals. Our doctors don't even go home anymore. They are fighting for the lives of Mariupol residents," he said.

Russian forces are hoping to take Mariupol to complete a land corridor that would link the Crimea with southern Russia. Russia illegally annexed Crimea in 2014 from Ukraine.

4:30 a.m. ET, March 2, 2022

Ukrainian flag removed at Moscow embassy

From CNN’s Vasco Cotovio in Moscow

The Ukrainian flag has been brought down at the country’s embassy in Moscow, Russian state news agency RIA reported Wednesday.

According to RIA, a sign indicating the building was home to the Ukrainian embassy was also removed and the doors sealed. 

The Ukrainian government severed diplomatic ties with Russia on February 24, after Moscow ordered an invasion of the country.

4:14 a.m. ET, March 2, 2022

India opens embassy in Lviv after ordering its citizens to evacuate Ukraine's capital

From CNN's Esha Mitra in New Delhi 

India is setting up an embassy in the Ukrainian city Lviv after evacuating all its citizens from the capital Kyiv, India’s foreign secretary Harsh Shringla told reporters late Tuesday.

He did not say if the embassy in Kyiv would be shut.

"The Embassy office in Ukraine is being set up in Lviv, which will enable our Embassy teams to spread out to the border areas of Ukraine with Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania,” Shringla said, adding that the proximity to the western border would allow the embassy to facilitate the evacuation of citizens from Ukraine into ​neighboring countries.

The Ministry of External Affairs declined to confirm to CNN if the Kyiv embassy had been shut.

Earlier this week, the Indian embassy in Kyiv had issued advisories for all Indian citizens to leave the capital.

“All of our nationals have left Kiev,” Shringla said Tuesday. 

So far, 12,000 of the 20,000 Indian citizens that were in Ukraine have left the country. Half of those remaining, around 4,000, are in conflict zones in the Kharkiv-Sumy region of Ukraine, while the rest are “out of harm’s way,” Shringla added.

The Indian ​Air Force also joined aid evacuation efforts by sending a C-17 aircraft to Romania early Wednesday, state broadcaster Doordarshan News reported.

3:57 a.m. ET, March 2, 2022

Ukraine denies that Kherson has fallen

From CNN's Tim Lister in Kyiv

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has denied reports that the southern city of Kherson has fallen to the Russians.

“According to the info from our brigade the battles are going on now,” a spokesperson for the ministry said. “The city is not captured totally, some parts are under our control.”

Russian state media had previously reported that Russian troops had taken full control of the city.

3:50 a.m. ET, March 2, 2022

More explosions are being reported in Kharkiv

From CNN's Gianluca Mezzofiore and Celine Alkhaldi

Damaged buildings in Kharkiv, Ukraine, after a reported Russian strike on March 2.
Damaged buildings in Kharkiv, Ukraine, after a reported Russian strike on March 2. (State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

Kharkiv's regional police department and Kharkiv National University have been targeted in a military strike Wednesday morning, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service and footage geolocated by CNN. 

The videos show the buildings engulfed by fire and emergency personnel attending the scene. Three people were injured, according to a statement from the state's emergency service.

 

3:44 a.m. ET, March 2, 2022

Russia's defense ministry confirms it carried out a military strike on communications infrastructure

From CNN's Vasco Cotovio and Nathan Hodge in Moscow

A blast is seen near the TV tower in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 1.
A blast is seen near the TV tower in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 1. (Carlos Barria/Reuters)

The Russian Ministry of Defense has acknowledged it carried out long-range strikes with precision weapons targeting Ukrainian communications infrastructure, Russian military spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said in a Wednesday statement.

Ukrainian intelligence agency facilities were among the targets struck, according to Russian state news agency TASS.

On Tuesday, the area surrounding a TV tower in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv was hit by military strikes, videos and photos posted to social media, geolocated and verified by CNN, showed. The Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs also confirmed there was a military strike near the TV tower.

It was not immediately clear if the area around the tower was among the targets mentioned by the Russian Ministry of Defense.

3:31 a.m. ET, March 2, 2022

It's quiet and tense in Kyiv, with streets empty as city prepares for another day of battle

From CNN's Ivana Kottasova in Kyiv

Soldiers are seen around piles of sand used for blocking a road in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on March 2.
Soldiers are seen around piles of sand used for blocking a road in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on March 2. (Aytac Unal/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

The mood in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, is quiet and tense as morning dawns.

There are checkpoints throughout the city, and long lines in front of pharmacies as the city braces for another day of potential strikes and explosions, as Russian forces step up their assault.

CNN reporters on the ground saw one woman walking a dog on the street, but otherwise there's hardly anyone out. Most are taking shelter in basements, bomb shelters and other underground spaces. Sand bags, anti-tank barriers and piles of concrete blocks are littered around the city checkpoints.

It's wet today, a drizzle coming down. The many Territorial Defence Forces volunteers manning the checkpoints can be identified by their yellow armbands. Some are wearing camouflage, though others are dressed in civilian clothes -- jeans, utility trousers, and newly acquired rifles hanging by their sides.

3:28 a.m. ET, March 2, 2022

Ukraine’s third-largest city is on edge as Russian forces inch closer

From CNN’s Nick Paton Walsh in Odessa

Local residents load sand bags onto the truck to defend the city, Odessa, Ukraine, on March 1.
Local residents load sand bags onto the truck to defend the city, Odessa, Ukraine, on March 1. (Nina Lyashonok/Ukrinform/Future Publishing/Getty Images)

The city center in Odessa is a ghost town. Barricaded with sandbags, this is a city ready for battle.

The bombing hasn’t started, but Ukraine’s third largest city on the southern coast appears as if it’s already under bombardment.

For days, Odessa’s residents have been warned of the possibility of a Russian amphibious landing. Young residents now know it is their turn to fight. Some civilians have already taken up arms.

Scarred from a war for the last generation, locals are on edge as Russian forces encroach on Ukraine’s Black Sea coast. They say this is just like an episode that causes their grandparents to burst into nervous tears when they recall the horror of 1941 during the assault by Nazi Germany.

A food hall has been hurriedly converted into a well-oiled machine designed to sustain the city’s youth with medicine and other essential supplies. The city’s nearby Opera House is fortified – just as it was more than eight decades ago.

One man, Nick, tells me he couldn't help but weep after seeing a photograph of the building barricaded.

"It is impossible to imagine that this picture in reality, it is only our memory," he said.

But while it can feel like everyone is staying to fight, trains are filling with people – young mothers and their children – desperate to escape.

They watched the chilling march of the Russians into the town of Kherson, about 125 miles (200 km) west of Odessa — a town where locals never imagined they would have Russian troops walking around the streets.

3:36 a.m. ET, March 2, 2022

World champion boxer Oleksandr Uysk on taking up arms in Ukraine: "It is my duty to fight"

Heavyweight boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk.
Heavyweight boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk. (CNN)

Just a few months ago, world heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk was facing off against opponents in the boxing ring. Now, he's back home in Ukraine, prepared to take up arms to defend his country.

When asked on Tuesday why he had returned, he replied, "What do you mean, why?"

It's my duty (to fight), to defend my home, my family," he said, speaking to CNN from a basement in Kyiv. "I have to do this."

He added that he didn't want to kill anybody, but would do what was necessary to protect himself and his loved ones.

When asked if he was afraid, he said, "My soul belongs to the Lord, and my body and my honor belong to my country, to my family. So there is no fear. Absolutely no fear."

The 35-year-old's last appearance in the ring was in September when he became world heavyweight champion by winning a unanimous decision against Anthony Joshua.

Boxers fighting for Ukraine: Usyk is not the only boxing champion to take up arms to defend his country from Russia's attack.

Former world heavyweight champion and Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko told CNN Tuesday he is proud of Ukrainian citizens for defending their country and sees the battle ahead as a fight for its future. Klitschko and his brother, fellow Hall of Famer Wladimir Klitschko, have both pledged to fight for Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian three-weight world champion Vasily Lomachenko has joined a defense battalion in his home country, according to a post on his Facebook account.

Watch Usyk's interview with CNN's Don Riddell: