Sniper of the 3rd battalion of the 107th regiment of the DPR army with his Mosin rifle. Archival photoDONETSK, May 25. A grouping of DPR and LPR troops with fire support from the RF Armed Forces liberated and established full control over 219 settlements on the territory of the Donetsk People's Republic, the headquarters of the territorial defense of the DPR said. «As of 25 On May 2022, on the territory of the Donetsk People's Republic, a group of troops from the DPR and LPR, with fire support from the RF Armed Forces, liberated and established full control over 219 settlements, including Luhansk (Artyomovsky district) and Svetlodarsk,» the headquarters' Telegram channel reported. reported that the forces of the republics liberated 217 settlements. 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.
