People's police officers of the DPR in the Petrovsky district of Donetsk. Archival photoDONETSK, May 18. At 8:55 a.m. (Moscow time) Ukrainian troops shelled the Petrovsky district of Donetsk, firing five shells with a caliber of 122 mm, the representative office of the Donetsk People's Republic in the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of the Ceasefire said (JCCC). «Fire was recorded from the VFU (armed formations of Ukraine — ed.) in the direction: 08.55 — the settlement of Krasnogorovka — the city of Donetsk (Petrovsky district): 5 shells of 122 mm caliber were fired,» the representative office reported in its Telegram-channel. 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 Marinka, has been regularly shelled by Ukrainian troops. 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, they completed the main tasks of the first stage — they significantly reduced the combat potential of Ukraine. The main goal in the Russian military department was called the liberation of Donbass.
