Mariupol sea port. Archival photoMOSCOW, May 18.The first shipment from the port of Mariupol is scheduled for May, said the head of the Donetsk People's Republic Denis Pushilin. «for building materials, because a lot of building materials will be needed. Moreover, the ability to build supply chains through the port is extremely important for us. Therefore, the port is undergoing mine clearance, clearing, and recruitment. Everything is moving according to the goals we have set,» he said. Pushilin during a conversation with journalists.The port of Mariupol began to be put in order At the time of the proclamation of the DPR in 2014, Mariupol, with a population of about 450 thousand people, was the second city of the republic after Donetsk, but in June of the same year, Ukrainian security forces regained control of Mariupol. On March 7, 12 days after the start of the Russian special operation to demilitarize Ukraine, the deputy commander of the Vostok battalion, Alexander Semenov, said that the city was surrounded, a cleansing of its individual areas had begun, on April 16, the official representative of the Russian Defense Ministry, Igor Konashenkov, said that from the Ukrainian army, foreign mercenaries and neo-Nazis from the Azov regiment (against whose militants a criminal case has been initiated in Russia), the entire city territory was cleared. The remnants of the Ukrainian group were blocked at the Azovstal plant. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, 959 militants from Azovstal have surrendered since Monday, including 80 wounded, 51 of them were taken to the Novoazovsk hospital in the DPR. 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 Russian Ministry of Defense, as of March 25, the Russian Armed Forces had 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 called the liberation of Donbass. How Mariupol is being restored
