A serviceman of the People's Militia of the DPR on the line of contact. Archival photoDONETSK, March 24 At 05:30 Ukrainian troops fired eight 122-millimeter shells at Donetsk, the DPR representative office at the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of the Ceasefire (JCCC) said in a statement. sides of the VFU (armed formations of Ukraine — ed.) in the direction: 05.30 — Novomikhailovka settlement — Donetsk settlement (Petrovsky district): 8 shells of 122 mm caliber were fired,» the representative office said. Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine 24 February. President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years.» For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out «demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine», to bring to justice all war criminals responsible for «bloody crimes against civilians» in Donbass. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Armed Forces strike only at military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops. With the support of the Russian Armed Forces, the DPR and LPR groups are developing an offensive, but there is no talk of the occupation of Ukraine, the Russian president emphasized. along Donetsk in the LPR
