MINSK, February 27. /TASS/. The leader of the Lugansk People’s Republic, Leonid Pasechnik, said on Sunday that the Ukrainian army was beginning to use more serious high accuracy weapons, while frequent bombardments of frontline territories had died down.

"As of today, the bombardments of frontline territories, rather frequent until recently, have died down. The enemy has begun to user more serious high accuracy weapons, such as the Tochka-U missile system," Pashechnik said on Russia’s TV Channel One.

He stressed that before vacating the previously held territories the enemy was blowing up buildings and planting mines at crucial life support facilities in communities.

"They have been trying to maximize damage and to leave only scorched land behind. There is a huge amount of work for us to handle in the future," he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24 said in an early morning televised address he had launched a special military operation in Ukraine in response to a request for help from the leaders of the Donbass republics. He stressed that Moscow had no plans for an occupation of Ukrainian territories. The sole purpose is the country’s demilitarization and denazification. The Russian Defense Ministry has said that its forces are not attacking cities, its main targets being military infrastructures. The civilian population is not at risk, the Defense Ministry said.