"Russian Grad multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) crews with the Central Group of Forces were seen conducting strikes in footage published on Friday, as the country's Defence Ministry reported hits on Ukrainian units in the Krasnoarmeysk direction. "We operate at a distance of 20-25 kilometres, destroying enemy hardware and infantry," said Maxim Nemtyrev, the vehicle commander. "Upon arrival at the designated point, we have about three to four minutes to deploy the system, lock onto the target, fire three test rockets and re-adjust, fire the full batch, wrap up and leave quickly." According to field artillery surveyor Ruslan Basyrov, it can take up to 15 minutes to reach the firing position. "As a field artillery surveyor, my job is to aim the vehicle at the target once we arrive at the firing position," he explained. "Once we arrive, the first thing I do is set up the artillery theodolite, position it in azimuth and aim it at the target. Then I pass the information to the gunner, the combat vehicle commander." On December 31, the Russian Defence Ministry reported that "amid the Russian Armed Forces’ success in liberating the Donetsk People’s Republic, the Kiev regime was making desperate attempts to convince the Ukrainian population and Western sponsors that the Ukrainian Armed Forces were still in Krasnoarmeysk, Dimitrov, and Rodinskoye." Meanwhile, Ukraine’s General Staff said on January 2 that its troops had stopped "23 assaults near Novoye Shakhovo, Rodinskoye, Krasny Liman, Pokrovsk (Krasnoarmeysk), Kotlino, Udachnoye, Molodetskoye, and towards Novopavlovka." Moscow launched a military offensive in Ukraine in late February 2022 after recognising the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR), claiming that Kiev had failed to guarantee their special status under the 2014 Minsk Agreements, and urging Ukraine to declare itself officially neutral and give assurances that it would never join NATO. Kiev denounced the Russian action as an invasion. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky imposed martial law throughout the country, announcing a general mobilisation, while the EU and the US imposed several rounds of sanctions on Moscow. The date and location of the footage published by the Russian Defence Ministry cannot be independently verified. "