Ukrainian Forces Strike Donetsk With 20 Grad Rockets, DPR Says

The Kiev regime's forces have intensified their attacks in recent weeks on Ukraine's breakaway people's republics of Donetsk and Lugansk while Russian forces and the LPR and DPR militia have continued their successful advance amid Moscow's special military operation in Ukraine.

Ukrainian forces have shelled the city of Donetsk, firing 20 rockets from the Grad Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS), a spokesman for the representative office of the Donetsk People's Republic in the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of the Ceasefire regime said.

"An attack by the armed formations of Ukraine was registered at 11.48 (Moscow time) in the direction of Netailovo outside the city of Donetsk: 20 missiles were fired from the BM-21 Grad MLRS," the representative office announced on Telegram.

The latest strike on the suburbs of Donetsk comes as battles between Ukrainian forces and the Russian army have intensified, with the latter advancing through the territory of the Lugansk and Donetsk People's Republics, liberating villages and towns.

On Saturday, Igor Konashenkov - the Russian Defense Ministry's spokesman - said during a briefing that an attempt made by the Ukrainian armed forces to turn the Azot plant in Severodonetsk, in the LPR, into a stronghold of resistance was thwarted. The Azot chemical plant occupies almost half Severodonetsk's territory. The plant had been controlled by Ukrainian militants for several weeks after they became holed up there when the city came under the control of Russian and LPR forces. Last week, the Russian military offered a safe exit to militants at Azot who agree to surrender. It also called on them to let civilians leave the plant and evacuate via a humanitarian corridor to a non-combat area in the LPR.