Representative of the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of the Ceasefire. File photoDONETSK, May 18.In 40 minutes, Ukrainian troops fired 40 rockets from Grad at Yasinovataya and Yakovlevka, adjacent to it, in the Donetsk People's Republic, the DPR representative office at the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of the Ceasefire (JCCC) reported. formations of Ukraine — ed.) in the following directions: 19.20 — settlement Avdiivka — settlement Yasinovataya: five missiles were fired from the BM-21 Grad; 19.30 — settlement Avdiivka — settlement Yasinovataya: fired five missiles from the BM-21 «Grad», 19.40 — settlement Avdiivka — settlement Yakovlevka: five rockets were fired from the BM-21 «Grad», — the message in the representative's Telegram channel says.
The number of victims of the shelling of Donetsk on Wednesday increased to two. The office also recorded three more shelling of Yasinovataya from the Avdiivka direction: at 19.50, 19.55 and 20.00, during each of which five rockets were fired from the Grad MLRS. Yasinovataya is located about 25 kilometers north of Donetsk, it houses the largest railway station in the former USSR. To the west of the city, which has been controlled by the DPR since 2014, in the direction of Avdiivka, there has been a line of contact with the combat positions of Ukrainian troops for almost eight years. 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.
