current Events/2023 March 4

• Russian invasion of Ukraine
  • Battle of Bakhmut
    • Heavy street fighting takes place between Russian and Ukrainian troops in Bakhmut, Donetsk Oblast. The city's deputy mayor Oleksandr Marchenko says that "not a single building" has remained untouched by fighting, and that the city is "almost destroyed". (BBC News)
    • In a rare high-level visit to the Donbas, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu is filmed inspecting troops in "the eastern military district in the south Donetsk direction". (The Guardian)
• Kivu conflict
  • Burundi deploys 100 troops to the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo to help the country fight insurgencies by militias, including M23. (AFP via The East African)

Disasters and accidents

• Seven people are killed and 17 others are injured in a fire and subsequent explosion at an oxygen plant in Sitakunda, Bangladesh. (Dhaka Tribune)
• Twenty-one people are injured in a bus crash in Corps, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France. (AP)
• A Norfolk Southern train derails in Clark County, Ohio, United States, with local residents advised to shelter in place. The derailment comes just over one month after the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous materials in East Palestine, Ohio. However, no hazardous materials are known to be involved in the Clark County derailment. (WDTN-TV)

International relations

• United Nations member states finalize the text of the High Seas Treaty, which aims to declare 30% of the world's oceans marine protected areas by 2030. (BBC News)

Law and crime

• Assassination of Roel Degamo
  • Nine people, including Negros Oriental governor Roel Degamo, are killed by unknown gunmen in Degamo's home in Pamplona, Philippines. (AFP via The Bangkok Post) (SunStar)