Russian shelling kills seven civilians in Ukraine on March 4

As a result of Russian military shelling on March 4, seven civilians were killed in the Donetsk, Kharkiv, and Kherson regions, and at least 34 others sustained injuries, including in the Dnipropetrovsk and Sumy Oblasts, according to the National Police of Ukraine.

Law enforcement officers at the scene of one of the Russian strikes in the Kharkiv Oblast

The victims of Russian shelling on March 4 included:

• Two women in the Kharkiv Oblast;
• Two residents of Kostiantynivka, where approximately 2,000 civilians currently remain effectively trapped under enemy fire;
• A woman from Novodmytrivka, who was targeted by a Russian drone while riding her bicycle;
• An elderly woman and a young man in Kherson.

The highest number of casualties occurred in the Kharkiv Oblast, where at least 19 people were wounded. Among them were a teenager and nine adults from Novoprokopivka, which the Russians attacked with drones.

In the Donetsk Oblast, the Russian military launched over 1,300 strikes on March 4, resulting in five injuries in Kostiantynivka, Sloviansk, Druzhkivka, and Raihorodok.

A house in the Donetsk Oblast destroyed by a Russian military strike.

Three people were injured in each of the Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, and Sumy Oblasts due to Russian strikes. In the Kherson Oblast, the daily report also included an elderly woman who had been injured in Russian attacks back on March 3.

To provide background, over the course of March 3, the Russian military killed four civilians in Ukraine; in total, more than 15,000 civilians have been killed over a period of more than four years.

Ukrainian experts point out that countries including China, North Korea, Hungary, Slovakia, Iran, and Brazil assist Moscow in killing Ukrainians in its war against Ukraine by funding the Russian budget through trade.

Previously, AP reported that Russia has provided Iran with information that could help Tehran strike American warships, aircraft, and other assets in the region, according to two officials familiar with U.S. intelligence on the matter.

The officials, who were not authorized to comment publicly on the sensitive matter and spoke on the condition of anonymity, cautioned that the U.S. intelligence has not uncovered that Russia is directing Iran on what to do with the information as the U.S. and Israel continue their bombardment and Iran fires retaliatory salvos at American assets and allies in the Persian Gulf.

You may also want to read: Zelenskyy offers help to stop Iranian drones in return for truce — Bloomberg

Meanwhile, Andrii Klymenko, the editor-in-chief of BlackSeaNews, pointed out that the U.S. Department of the Treasury has issued an indefinite license authorizing transactions with German subsidiaries of Rosneft — Rosneft Deutschland and RN Refining & Marketing — effectively exempting them from the scope of U.S. sanctions.