Russia says it struck positions of presidential brigade of National Guard of Ukraine

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - The Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that the air forces and artillery units carried out multiple strikes at the position of the 1st Presidential Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine fighting in the Donetsk region.

"The air strikes and artillery fire hit the strongholds and places of concentration of manpower of the 1st Brigade of the President of Ukraine, the 58th motorized infantry, and 72nd mechanized brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the areas of Urozhodny, Vuhledar, and Dobropillia," Alexander Gordeyev, the head of the press center of the Russian group of forces Vostok said in a video statement.

Separately, the Defense Ministry claimed that "the Russian military improved their position along the front edge in the South Donetsk direction."

Meanwhile, Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klichko reported multiple explosions in Ukraine's capital and surrounding Kyiv region.

"Explosions in the city. The air defense is working. Stay in the shelters," he wrote on Telegram.

Klichko also said one of the explosions caused a fire in Kyiv's Holosiivskyi District without specifying what facility caught fire.

According to Ukraine's online map that tracks air raids, alerts sounded across the entire territory of the country soon after Klichko reported the attack on Kyiv.

Russia launched its "special military operation" in Ukraine in February 2022. The West took Ukraine's side, imposed heavy sanctions on Russia, and has been providing unprecedented economic, humanitarian, and economic assistance to Kyiv ever since.

On Feb. 24, the conflict will enter its third year.