An employee of the People's Militia of the DPR near a shell crater near a Gorlovka school. Archival photoDONETSK, May 22.Ukrainian troops shelled Gorlovka at night, firing three RPG grenades, the DPR office in the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of the Ceasefire reported on its Telegram channel (JCCC).
"Shooting was recorded from the VFU in the directions: 01.50 — the settlement of Leninskoye — the settlement of Gorlovka (the village of the Gagarin mine): three RPG grenades were fired, small arms were also used", — the publication says.
The settlement of Gorlovka has been under the control of the DPR since 2014. It is located 50 kilometers north of Donetsk. On the territory of the city there are coal mining enterprises and the chemical concern Stirol. Now the most frequently shelled areas of Gorlovka are the village of Zaitsevo and the villages of mines named after Gagarin and «6/7» located on the outskirts of the city. Before the start of the conflict in Donbass, the population of the settlement numbered more than 250 thousand people. Since February 24, Russia has been conducting a military operation to denazify and demilitarize Ukraine. As Vladimir Putin emphasized, its goal is «to protect people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years.» According to the Ministry of Defense, the Russian military strikes only on military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops, nothing threatens the civilian population. The ministry called the liberation of Donbass the main goal of the operation.