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Situation Summary
In the Donetsk region, Russian forces took control over Stepove, Sieverne, and Lastochkyne villages west of Avdiivka. Russian forces also made limited advances near Bakhmut. Amid these advances, drone footage captured Russian soldiers shooting seven apparently unarmed Ukrainian servicemen dead as they attempted to surrender. In the Zaporizhia region, fighting continued south of Orikhiv and near Huliaipole. In the Kherson region, Ukrainian and Russian forces clashed near Krynky and the Antonivka bridge on the Russian-controlled southern bank of the Dnipro river. Along the Luhansk-Kharkiv administrative boundary, fighting concentrated in the area of Kupiansk and west of Sieverodonetsk.
Ukrainian forces continued targeting different parts of Crimea with drone strikes, reportedly hitting a Russian military base near Hvardiyske north of Simferopol on 1 March. Earlier, on 27 February, suspected Ukrainian partisans blew up the office of the United Russia party in occupied Nova Kakhovka in the Kherson region ahead of the Russian presidential elections. Early voting started in the four annexed Ukrainian regions on 25 February.1The Moscow Times, ‘Russia Kicks Off Early Voting in Occupied Ukrainian Regions,’ 26 February 2024
Russian shelling and airstrikes killed at least 25 civilians in the Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Odesa, Sumy, and Zaporizhia regions. On 28 February, Russian air forces struck a cafe and a church in Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region, killing two civilians and wounding five others. Russian forces also shelled and carried out drone strikes on Nikopol in the Dnipropetrovsk region several times during the week, killing three civilians. Russian soldiers also shot and wounded a civilian butcher in Baherovo west of Kerch in Crimea.
