Shards of a Grad multiple rocket launcher. Archival photoLUGANSK, April 25Ukrainian troops at 14.20 shelled the settlement of Donetsk in the Lugansk People's Republic using Grad multiple launch rocket systems, the LPR representative office in the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of the Ceasefire ( The shelling was recorded from the side of the armed formations of Ukraine: 14.20 from the direction of the settlement of Orekhovo to the settlement of Donetsk with the use of BM-21 Grad MLRS (ten shells),» the representative office's Telegram channel said in a message. Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on 24 February. President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kyiv 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 Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces strike only at military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops and , on March 25, completed the main tasks of the first stage — significantly reduced the combat potential of Ukraine. The main goal in the Russian military department was called the liberation of Donbass.
