The situation at the front
According to the latest report of the Ukrainian General Staff, the main efforts of the Russian forces are now focused on conducting offensive operations in the Kupyansky, Limansky, Bakhmutsky, Avdeevsky and Shakhtyorsky directions. There are no significant changes in the Volyn, Polessky, Seversky and Slobozhansky directions.
In the Kupyansky and Limansky directions, the Russian military carried out several unsuccessful offensive operations in the areas of Stelmakhovka, Belogorovka, Serebryansky forestry and Fedorovka.
In the Bakhmut direction, Russian forces continue to attack Ukrainian positions near Ivanovsky, Dilievka and Bakhmut.
On the Avdeevka and Shakhtyorsk directions, the Russians conducted an unsuccessful offensive near Kamenka, Vodyany, Maryinka, Pobeda and Novomikhailovka, writes the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
In the Zaporizhia direction, Russian forces hit the districts of 20 settlements with artillery fire. Among them are Vremovka, Novopol, Donetsk region; Malinovka, Gulyaipole, Belogorye, Malaya Tokmachka, Novoandreevka, Maly Shcherbaki of the Zaporozhye region and Vyshetarasovka, Dobraya Nadezhda and Manganese – Dnepropetrovsk.
In the Kherson direction , Kachkarovka, Kazatskoye, Ivanovka, Nikolskoye, Molodezhnoye, Zelenovka, Antonovka, Belozerka and Dneprovskoe of the Kherson region suffered from artillery fire from Russian troops. In general, the districts have 25 settlements.
The WarMonitor project notes that the Ukrainian forces repulsed the assaults in the areas of Bakhmut, Novobakhmutovka, Avdeevka, Vodyanoye, Nevelskoye, Maryinka, Pobeda, Ugledar, Prechistovka, Stelmakhivka, Kremenny, Belogorovka, Fedorovka, Orekhovo-Vasilevka, Dubovo-Vasilevka, Berkhovka and Yagodnoe.
Also, according to the project, Ukrainian artillery struck and destroyed a Russian base east of Bakhmut.
The pro-Russian Telegram channel "Two Majors" reports that PMC "Wagner" in the Bakhmut direction is conducting heavy battles in Berkhovka and Yagodnoye to the north of the city, "reports about the capture of settlements were premature." Southwest of Bakhmut – fighting near the village of Ivanovskoye.
Russian military columns were spotted near the border of the Chernihiv region, writes WarMonitor. Again, activity is reported at the Zyabrovka airfield in Belarus.
Heavy fighting has continued over the past 48 hours in the Bakhmut sector, where Ukrainian forces keep supply routes from the west open despite gradual encirclement by Russia over the past six weeks, according to a British military intelligence report.
The city of Vuhledar in the Donetsk region was again subjected to heavy shelling. There is a real possibility that Russia is preparing for new offensives in the area, despite costly failed attacks in early February and late 2022, British military intelligence officials say.
The Eastern Military District of Russia is still responsible for the Ugledar operation. British military intelligence notes that the commander of the Eastern Military District, Colonel General Rustam Muradov, is likely under great pressure and is trying to improve the results after harsh criticism from the Russian nationalist community after previous failures, but he is unlikely to succeed in this.
shelling
Russian troops launched a strike from the S-300 on the Kupyansky district of the Kharkiv region, the regional administration said. According to the authorities, the rocket hit the administrative building, several people were injured.
Prior to this, several settlements were shelled by Russian troops in the Donetsk region, local authorities reported . In Yampol, several houses were damaged, a person died, and another was injured.
Russian Telegram channels publish photos with the consequences of the arrival of HIMARS at a residential building in Donetsk, where civilians were killed. In total, five dead are known – a woman in the Budennovsky district (Oktyabrya street, 22a), a woman in the Petrovsky district of Donetsk (Magdeburgskaya street) and 4 ambulance workers (three died immediately, the wounded paramedic died from injuries incompatible with life in the hospital).
Losses
In the Valuysky urban district of the Belgorod region, a plane of the Ministry of Defense crashed . Su-25 attack aircraft fell on a barn with hay on the outskirts of the village of Orekhovo. After the fall, a fire started, the building burned down. The pilot died by ejecting and falling "in a deserted area." The cause of the plane crash, according to the Ministry of Defense, was a technical malfunction.
Arms deliveries
Finland will transfer three Leopard 2R HMBV armored demining vehicles to Ukraine, the country's Defense Ministry said . Leopard 2R HMBV (Heavy Mine Breaching Vehicle) is designed for reconnaissance, overcoming and clearing minefields. The agency will also train the Ukrainian military. The total cost of the aid package will be €160 million.
Spain can send up to 10 Leopard tanks to Ukraine. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said this during a joint briefing in Kiev with President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The United States may supply fifth-generation fighter jets to Ukraine, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland said . She also said that the new US sanctions will affect Russian banks and Chinese companies helping the Russian Federation to circumvent sanctions.
The Russian Telegram channel “Military Informant” writes that BTR-50P armored personnel carriers removed from storage were spotted on one of the echelons in Russia. These armored personnel carriers were developed back in the USSR on the basis of the PT-76 light amphibious tank in 1952. They can be armed with 7.62 or 12.7 mm machine guns and carry from 12 to 20 fighters. “The need to replace the high losses of light armored vehicles, combined with the supply of equipment to newly deployed formations, suggests that Russian factories cannot cope with the production of BMP-3 and BTR-82A vehicles. The removal of the BTR-50P from storage may also indicate the gradual exhaustion of serviceable BMP-1 and MT-LB in the warehouses, ”the channel’s message says.
Read also The Insider's summary of the main events of the war on February 22: “Russia can mobilize another million people, Putin distracts attention with the topic of START, the advance of the Russian Federation near Bakhmut. What's going on at the front .
