MOSCOW, December 12. /TASS/. The community of Maryinka in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) is 70% controlled by the Russia-Donbass allied forces, acting DPR Head Denis Pushilin told the Rossiya-24 TV Channel on Monday.

"The battles are ongoing directly inside Maryinka. Maryinka is already 70% controlled by our units," he said. The battles in the community are ongoing in the residential area, he specified.

The acting DPR head earlier told TASS that the Maryinka front was a priority area. He stressed that the battles were taking place already inside the community. There were still Ukrainian army positions and strongholds inside the community but the allied forces were persistently liberating it, he said.

DPR people’s militia forces began their operation to liberate Maryinka west of Donetsk from where the Ukrainian military shelled the republic’s capital on March 19. The DPR earlier said that the liberation of Maryinka would place the settlement of Aleksandrovka, the Petrovsky district and the Tekstilshchik neighborhood of Donetsk outside the reach of the Ukrainian army’s shelling.