DONETSK, February 24. /TASS/. The Ukrainian armed forces are conducting aimed fire against residential quarters of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), in which one civilian was killed and eight others were wounded, DPR People’s Militia Spokesman Eduard Basurin told a briefing on Thursday.
"The artillery units of the Ukrainian armed forces continue purposefully bombarding residential quarters of populated areas in the Donetsk People’s Republic. There are victims among civilians as a result of Ukraine’s aggression. Eight civilians were wounded and one was killed," he said.
As the DPR militia spokesman pointed out, "the enemy has opened fire against the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic over 50 times since the beginning of the day, employing 152mm and 122mm artillery guns, 120mm and 82mm mortars, firing over 300 shells."
A total of thirteen populated areas in the Donetsk People’s Republic came under the Ukrainian army’s fire. The bombardments damaged six houses in Gorlovka, one house in Dokuchayevsk, two houses in Yelenovka and two houses in Ozeryanovka. The communities of Sakhanka, Zaichenko, Leninskoye and Kominternovo were cut off electric power, the DPR people’s militia spokesman said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address on Thursday morning that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in order to protect people "who have been suffering from abuse and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years." The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories.
Russia’s Defense Ministry reported later on Thursday that Russian troops were not delivering strikes against Ukrainian cities. It emphasized that Ukrainian military infrastructure was being destroyed by precision weapons.
Civilians are not threatened, it assured.