section_path: Events/Initial invasion (24 February – 7 April 2022)/Southern and eastern front
section_name: Southern and eastern front
paragraph_text: Southern and eastern front
  
  On 24 February, Russian attack groups moved northwest from Crimea, capturing bridges over the Dnieper and the North Crimean Canal. On 1 March, Kherson was the first major city to fall to Russia. Russian troops moved on Mykolaiv and attacked it, but were repelled. Russian forces approached the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and besieged Enerhodar. By 25 February, Russian units had begun advancing on Mariupol. Russian forces captured Berdiansk. On 1 March, Denis Pushilin, head of the DPR, announced that it had surrounded Volnovakha.
  
  By 18 March, Mariupol was completely encircled and fighting had reached the city centre, hampering efforts to evacuate civilians. The Russians demanded surrender, and the Ukrainians refused. On 27 March, Ukrainian deputy prime minister Olha Stefanishyna said that "(m)ore than 85 percent of the whole town is destroyed." Russia refused safe passage into Mariupol to 50 buses sent by the UN to evacuate civilians.
  
  In the east, Russian troops attempted to capture Kharkiv, and met strong Ukrainian resistance. Izium was captured by Russian forces on 1 April after a monthlong battle. On 25 March, the Russian defence ministry said it would seek to occupy major cities in eastern Ukraine.
  
  On 3 April, following the retreat of Russian forces from Kyiv, Russia expanded its attack on southern Ukraine, with bombardment and strikes against Odesa, Mykolaiv, and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. By 7 April, the renewed massing of Russian troops and tanks around Izium, Sloviansk, and Kramatorsk prompted Ukrainian officials to advise remaining residents near the eastern border to evacuate to western Ukraine.