Russian air defense units have shot down 58 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles in the special military operation zone including the territory of the Lugansk People’s Republic over the past 24 hours, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
“Air defense units intercepted two high mobility artillery rocket system projectiles,” the report said. “Fifty-eight Ukrainian drones were destroyed in the areas of Ploshchanka and Makeyevka in the Lugansk People’s Republic, Krasnaya Gora, Shevchenko, Pobeda and Oktyabrskoye in the Donetsk People’s Republic, Verbovoye, Mirnoye and Novoye in the Zaporozhye region and Peschanovka and Golaya Pristan in the Kharkov region.”
On the Kupyansk axis, Task Force “West” aircraft and artillery delivered strikes at manpower and equipment of four Ukrainian army brigades in the areas of Sinkovka, Zagoruikovka and Berestovoye in the Kharkov region and Novolyubovka in the LPR.
“Ukrainian army losses amounted up to 60 servicemen, two tanks and one “Gvozdika” self-propelled howitzer,” the Defense Ministry said.
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The Ukrainian government launched the so-called anti-terrorist operation against Donbass in April 2014. The peace talks failed to reach tangible results due to Kiev’s position to settle the conflict by force.
President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation on February 24, 2022 to protect Donbass residents from Ukrainian aggression. Prior to that, LPR and DPR Heads Leonid Pasechnik and Denis Pushilin asked the Russian leader to provide military assistance.*i
