DONETSK, May 28. /TASS/. Ukraine’s Armed Forces have shelled the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) 3,369 times since February 17, killing 126 civilians, including four children, the DPR mission to the Joint Center for Ceasefire Control and Coordination (JCCC) said on Saturday.
"For 101 days of escalation, 126 civilians have been killed, including four children, and 586 civilians, including 46 children, have suffered different wounds," the mission wrote on its Telegram channel.
It is also reported that 3,694 residential buildings, 774 civilian facilities, including 49 medical facilities, 135 educational institutions, 229 social welfare facilities, 27 critical facilities, 334 power, water and gas supply facilities have been damaged in shelling.
Donetsk’s Kuibyshevsky, Kirovsky and Petrovsky districts and the towns of Gorlovka, Makeevka and Yasinovataya are under attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. During 101 days of escalation, the DPR mission to the JCCC recorded 3,369 instances of firing, while heavy weapons were used in 3,072 of them.
"Overall, the enemy fired 31,093 munitions of various calibers, including 28 Tochka-U missiles, 11 BM-30 Smerch missiles, 27 BM-27 Uragan missiles and 5,175 BM-21 Grad missiles," the post says.
Tensions escalated along the contact line in Donbass on February 17. The Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR respectively) reported the heaviest shelling by Ukraine in months. On February 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed decrees on recognizing the DPR and LPR. Russia recognized the two republics within the administrative borders of Donetsk and Lugansk regions as they were at the beginning of 2014 stipulated in their constitutions.
On February 24, Putin launched a special military operation in Ukraine following a request for help from the leaders of two Donbass republics. The DPR and LPR mounted an operation to regain the areas that were controlled by Kiev.