MOSCOW, January 17. /TASS/. All high-rise buildings in the city of Maryinka west of Donetsk are controlled by Russian forces and the city is expected to be liberated from Ukrainian occupation soon, Acting Head of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Denis Pushilin said on Tuesday.
"As for the very city of Maryinka, all high-rise buildings have been cleared and are controlled by our forces. <...> We can see the achievements of our troops who are mopping up the area meter by meter. We expect Maryinka to come under full control of the Donetsk People’s Republic in the near future," he told the Rossiya-24 TV channel.
Pushilin said last week that Maryinka was largely controlled by Russian forces but Ukrainian troops had managed to gain a foothold in a residential area in the city’s outskirts. He explained that the Armed Forces of Ukraine had been building strong defenses in Maryinka for eight years, creating numerous firing points, trenches and ditches both along residential buildings and beneath them. The DPR leader also noted that taking control of the city would open the road to Krasnogorovka from where Ukrainian troops were shelling Donetsk.
The DPR People’s Militia, in turn, specified that the liberation of Maryinka would put Alexandrovka, the Petrovsky and Tekstilshchik districts of Donetsk out of reach from Ukrainian shelling attacks.