Stela at the entrance to the village of Vasylivka, Donetsk region. Archival photoDONETSK, May 15. At 19.40 Ukrainian troops fired four shells of 122 mm caliber at Vasilyevka in the DPR, the republic's representative office in the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of the Ceasefire Regime (JCCC) said in a statement. shelling from the armed formations of Ukraine in the direction: 19:40 — Avdiivka — Vasilyevka: 4 shells of 122 mm caliber were fired,» the representative office said. 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 Lugansk region, within whose borders a republic was proclaimed, had been liberated. />Ukrainian troops shelled Pervomaisk
