DONETSK, November 28. /TASS/. About 2,000 civilian infrastructure sites, including over 8,500 residential buildings, have been damaged in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) as a result of the Ukrainian army’s bombardments since the conflict escalation in February, the DPR mission to the Joint Control and Coordination Center on Ukraine’s War Crimes reported on Monday.
"Damage has been caused to 8,590 residential buildings, 1,997 civilian infrastructure sites, including 104 health institutions, 397 educational establishments, 751 social facilities, 55 critical infrastructure sites, 691 electricity, water, heat and gas supply facilities and 931 transport vehicles," the mission said in a statement.
Over this period, the Ukrainian military has bombarded DPR territory 12,765 times, firing a total of 86,000 munitions, including Tochka-U ballistic missiles, HIMARS, Grad and Uragan rockets, the mission reported.
The situation along the line of engagement in Donbass escalated on February 17. The Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) reported the most massive bombardments by the Ukrainian military in recent months, which damaged civilian infrastructure and caused civilian casualties.
On February 21, President Vladimir Putin announced that Moscow was recognizing the sovereignty of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics. Russia signed agreements on friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance with their leaders. Moscow recognized the Donbass republics in accordance with the DPR and LPR constitutions within the boundaries of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions as of the beginning of 2014.
Russian President Putin announced on February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics for assistance he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in Ukraine. The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories, noting that the operation was aimed at the denazification and demilitarization of Ukraine.
Later, the DPR and the LPR launched an operation to liberate their territories under Kiev’s control.