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Situation Summary
Russian forces continued pressing their advantage in the Donetsk region following Ukrainian forces’ withdrawal from their stronghold in Avdiivka. Nearly three-quarters of all clashes throughout the week occurred there, mostly around Russian-occupied Donetsk city and Bakhmut. On 20 February, Russian forces seized the village of Pobieda south of Marinka while also pushing west of Avdiivka. Clashes continued in the area of Robotyne and Verbove in the Zaporizhia region and near Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region. Fighting also persisted on the left bank of the Dnipro river in the Kherson region, contradicting Russian claims of having cleared the Ukrainian bridgehead in Krynky.1Karolina Hird et al., ‘Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment,’ Institute for the Study of War, 20 February 2024
Despite ceding ground, Ukrainian forces continued downing Russian aircraft and conducting long-range strikes on other Russian military assets and concentrations of personnel. On 23 February, a Ukrainian surface-to-air missile shot down a Russian early warning and reconnaissance plane near the Russian shore on the Azov Sea, killing all 10 crew onboard. The strike marked the second downing of a Russian reconnaissance plane in 2024. Additionally, Ukrainian forces downed four Russian fighter jets overflying the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, more than twice the monthly average in 2023.
Russian forces killed over 30 civilians in indiscriminate strikes across Ukraine throughout the week, over half of them in frontline regions. On 20 February, a Russian kamikaze drone killed a family of five at their home in the Sumy region.2Reuters, ‘Russian drone attacks kill seven in northern regions, Ukraine says,’ 20 February 2024 Repeated Russian drone strikes on Odesa city on 22 and 23 February killed six civilians. On 23 February, a Russian drone strike on a multi-story residential building in Dnipro city killed three civilians and wounded eight others.
