Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, February 25, 2024 - Nicole Wolkov, Angelica Evans, Christina Harward, Karolina Hird, and Frederick W. Kagan

Russian officials and state-run and state-affiliated TV channels likely refrained from commenting on the two-year anniversary of the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion to avoid drawing attention to Russia’s failures to achieve its stated strategic goals in Ukraine and its more immediate goals of seizing all of Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts, while also suffering high personnel losses. [...] The footage shows Russian forces executing nine Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) who had just surrendered near Ivanivske (on the outskirts of Bakhmut).[13] The execution of POWs is a violation of the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of POWs.[14] The February 25 footage is the fourth such instance of video evidence showing Russian forces executing Ukrainian POWs in the past two weeks alone.[15]. [...] • Russian officials and state-run and state-affiliated TV channels likely refrained from commenting on the two-year anniversary of the start of Russia’s full- scale invasion to avoid drawing attention to Russia’s failures to achieve its stated strategic goals in Ukraine and its more immediate goals of seizing all of Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts, while also suffering high personnel losses. [...] A Russian milblogger claimed that Russian forces advanced west of Kreminna near Yampolivka and Terny over the past week.[23] Ukrainian and Russian sources stated that positional fighting continued northeast of Kupyansk near Synkivka; southeast of Kupyansk near Tabaivka; west of Kreminna near Terny and Torske; and south of Kreminna near Bilohorivka.[24] Ukrainian Luhansk Oblast Head Artem Lysohor r. [...] A prominent Kremlin-affiliated milblogger claimed that Russian forces are attacking and advancing in eastern and northern Robotyne, and other Russian milbloggers claimed that heavy fighting is ongoing in and around the settlement.[41] A milblogger additionally claimed that Russian forces captured positions southwest of Verbove (east of Robotyne), but ISW has not yet observed visual evidence of thi.