Shards of a Grad multiple rocket launcher. File photoDONETSK, Apr 23After 21.00, Ukrainian troops shelled Gorlovka three times, including using the Grad MLRS, reports the representative office of the Donetsk People's Republic in the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of the Ceasefire (JCCC). in the interval between 21.37 and 21.50 (coincides with Moscow time), in the village of the mine. Gagarin in Gorlovka, four mines with a caliber of 82 mm were fired, and heavy machine guns were also used during the shelling. In addition, the village of Molochnoye near Gorlovka was shelled, and Ukrainian troops fired 15 rockets from the BM-21 Grad at it. Since 2014, the village of Gorlovka has been under the control of the Donetsk People's Republic, located 50 kilometers north of Donetsk. On the territory of the city there are coal mining enterprises and the chemical concern Stirol. The most frequently shelled areas of Gorlovka at the moment are the village of Zaitsevo and the villages of mines named after Gagarin and «6/7» located on the outskirts of the city. Before the start of the conflict in Donbass, the population of Gorlovka numbered more than 250 thousand people. Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24. 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.
