Refugees from Mariupol at a food distribution point organized by volunteers from DonetskMOSCOW, March 25 The DPR forces continue to liberate Mariupol, residents of the liberated areas now have the opportunity to receive assistance, said the head of the republic, Denis Pushilin. «Russia 1». At the time of the proclamation of the DPR in 2014, Mariupol, with a population of about 450 thousand people, was the second largest city in the republic after Donetsk. However, in June of that year, the Ukrainian security forces regained control of Mariupol, and its eastern suburbs became one of the hottest places of conflict in Ukraine. On March 7, 2022, Alexander Semyonov, deputy commander of the Vostok battalion of the DPR, said that the city was surrounded, and a cleansing of some of its districts had begun. Currently, there are battles for control of the city. Among other Ukrainian units in Mariupol, there is a nationalist regiment «Azov», against whose fighters a criminal case has been initiated in the Russian Federation. 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 Kiev regime for eight years.» For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out «demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine.» According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the Armed Forces strike only at the military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops. With the support of the Russian Armed Forces, the forces of the DPR and LPR are developing an offensive, but there is no talk of the occupation of Ukraine, the President of Russia emphasized. «: the fate of people affected by the war in the Donbass
