Russian invaders conducted unsuccessful offensive operations outside eight settlements in the Kupiansk, Lyman, Avdiivka and Shakhtarsk sectors on Thursday, February 23.
According to Ukrinform, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said this in its evening war update published on Facebook.
According to the report, Ukraine’s combat aircraft launched 18 strikes against Russian troops. “Throughout the day, the aircraft of the Defense Forces carried out 14 strikes on the areas of concentration of personnel and military equipment of the occupiers, as well as four strikes on the positions of anti-aircraft missile systems. Our rocket forces and gunners hit three areas of concentration of manpower and one more important object of the enemy,” the report reads.
The Ukrainian General Staff said Russia focuses its main efforts on conducting offensive operations in the Kupiansk, Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Shakhtarsk areas. No changes have been recorded in the composition and position of enemy groups.
To clarify the locations of Ukrainian units and adjust artillery fire, the invaders actively use UAVs for aerial reconnaissance and, as a result, lose equipment. Ukrainian defenders destroyed the enemy’s Merlin and Zala drones.
On February 23, Russian troops launched nine missile and 28 air strikes and used multiple launch rocket systems more than 40 times. In particular, the invaders launched a missile attack on a civilian object in the Kharkiv region – an administrative building in the city of Dvorichna. Civilian objects in Beryslav, Zelenivka, and Bilozerka, Kherson region, were damaged by enemy shelling too. Civilian casualties were recorded.
At the same time, the enemy continues to suffer losses. According to the General Staff, in the temporarily occupied city of Donetsk, on the night of February 21 to February 22, six ambulances delivered wounded Russian soldiers to a trauma center.
It was established that, causing a humanitarian crisis in the temporarily captured city of Mariupol, the invaders induce the local population to join the fortification of positions around the city in exchange for food rations. The amount of payment for the specified labor activity has not been determined. Most people receive only food parcels.
Photo: Niclas Hammarström
Source: General Staff: Enemy unsuccessfully tried to advance near eight settlements in eastern Ukraine
