Russia's Vostok (East) forces have captured the settlements of Skudnoye (also known as Skudne) and Burlatskoye (Burlatske) in the Donetsk People's Republic, according to a statement from the Russian Defense Ministry on Saturday.

"During active offensive actions, units of the Vostok group of troops liberated the settlements of Skudnoye and Burlatskoye in the Donetsk People's Republic," the ministry announced.

Furthermore, Ukraine reportedly lost up to 160 troops, two armored vehicles, 10 motor vehicles, and three artillery guns, including a Polish-made 155mm Krab howitzer.

The ministry also reported that Russia's Tsentr (Center) forces had eliminated up to 345 Ukrainian soldiers within the past day. The statement read, "The enemy lost up to 345 soldiers, three armored fighting vehicles, eight motor vehicles, and four field artillery guns."

Additionally, Russia's Zapad (West) group reportedly destroyed up to 190 Ukrainian troops, a tank, two armored vehicles, including a US-made M113, and eight artillery guns. Meanwhile, Kiev lost over 170 soldiers, a tank, and six artillery guns in clashes with Russia’s Yug (South) group.

The Vostok (East) group also inflicted losses of up to 160 soldiers, two armored vehicles, three artillery guns, and two electronic warfare stations.

The Dnepr battle group eliminated up to 95 Ukrainian soldiers, while the Sever (North) group killed 55 more, the ministry noted.

Uninterrupted Russian operations

Russian forces also continued their operations against Ukrainian infrastructure, with warplanes, drones, and artillery hitting military airfields, drone depots, and concentrations of personnel and hardware in 136 locations, as per the ministry.

Russian air defenses successfully intercepted and downed six US-made JDAM guided bombs and 190 drones. In total, since the beginning of the war, Russia has reported the destruction of 656 enemy aircraft, 283 helicopters, 45,024 drones, 600 anti-aircraft systems, 21,946 tanks and armored vehicles, 1,523 MLRS, and 22,170 artillery pieces.

In recent actions, Russian air defenses shot down 48 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory, with 21 intercepted over Tver Region, 11 over Crimea, and the remainder across other regions, including Bryansk, Belgorod, Rostov, Smolensk, Lipetsk, and Kursk.

Moreover, the Russian Defense Ministry accused Ukraine of trying to attack a compressor station that is part of the TurkStream gas link, in the southwestern Russian region of Krasnodar, in an attempt to stop gas supplies to Europe via Turkiye, as President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the United States on Friday.

"On 28 February, against the background of the visit by V.Zelensky to Washington, D.C., the Kiev regime in order to stop gas supplying to European countries made another attempt to launch an attack using three fixed-wing UAVs on the infrastructure of the Russkaya Compressor Station in Gai-Kodzor (Krasnodar region), which provides gas supplying through the TurkStream pipeline," the ministry said in a statement.

Russian air defense forces shot down all three Ukrainian drones while they were still a safe distance away from the compressor station, the ministry said. The station is operating as usual.

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