A serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Archival photoDONETSK, May 7. At 12.30 Ukrainian troops shelled the Petrovsky district of Donetsk and Shirokaya Balka, firing 14 shells of 122 mm caliber, the DPR office in the JCCC reports. shells, and Wide Beam — eight. Petrovsky district of Donetsk is located on the western outskirts of the capital of the DPR, this is the most distant part of the city from the center. Since 2014, when the DPR declared independence from Kyiv, this area, starting from the line of contact outside the city of Maryinka, has been regularly shelled by Ukrainian security forces. Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24. Russian President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years.» According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, as of March 25, the Russian Armed Forces completed the main tasks of the first stage of the special operation — they significantly reduced the combat potential of Ukraine. The main goal in the Russian military department was the liberation of Donbass. On April 19, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced the start of the next phase of the special operation. Volnovakha, a strategically important regional center south of Donetsk, and Mariupol, the largest city on the coast of the Sea of Azov, have been liberated in the DPR. In the LPR, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense, as of March 25, 93% of the former Luhansk region, within which a republic was proclaimed in 2014, had been liberated. />Three civilians were injured during the shelling of the Petrovsky district of Donetsk
