On the eighth day of the military special operation, the troops of Russia, as well as the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, again managed to advance deep into the territories still controlled by the Kiev regime. A group of LPR troops took control of the road direction Yarovaya - Krasny Estuary - Privolye. The advance was 4 kilometers.
"As of the morning of March 3, the People's militia of the LPR liberated 50 settlements of the Luhansk People's Republic... March 3: Epifanovka, Stepnoy Yar, Gavrilovka, Andreevka, Kremennaya, Torskoye (DNR). The People's militia of the LPR managed to advance as much as possible in the direction of the village of Troitskoye - by 75 kilometers. The operation to liberate the territory of the republic continues," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the LPR reported yesterday.
The armed forces of the DPR narrowed the encirclement of the city of Mariupol yesterday, and also took control of the settlements of Novokrasnovka, Krasnovka, Vinogradnoye, Sartana and Vodiane. Russian units provided fire support to the Republican troops. The advance was 8 km .
"We continue to move towards the state border of our republic, and after that we will close the ring around the military grouping of Ukraine, which is located in the area of Donetsk and Horlivka," said Eduard Basurin, a representative of the People's Militia of the DPR.
He added that about 400 thousand residents of Mariupol are in the city, there are no products at all, the shops are completely empty, with water interruptions. According to Basurin, the humanitarian corridor is open, the DPR forces are trying to save people.
Units of the Russian Armed Forces liberated the city of Balakleya (located in the Izyumsky district of the Kharkiv region) from Ukrainian nationalist battalions yesterday. Currently, peaceful life is already being established there. In another Ukrainian settlement - the urban-type settlement of Borodyansk, Kiev region - Russian servicemen organized a corridor for civilians to exit. In addition, Blagoveshchenka, Blue Mountain, Petrovskoye, Shevchenkovskoye, Sladkaya, Balka, Ilchenkovo, Ochrevataya and Novopokrovka were taken under control.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military continued shelling residential areas of Donetsk, Gorlovka and other settlements of the DPR. In the center of Donetsk, powerful explosions were heard all day on Thursday.
Ukrainian troops opened fire on the territory of the republic four times in 2 hours. The attacks were recorded from 13.10 to 15.20 in the settlements of Elenovka, Staromikhailovka, Ozeryanovka. In total, according to the DPR, 28 82-millimeter mines and four 122-millimeter shells, 10 grenades from an anti-tank grenade launcher were fired.
Gorlovka was being fired from the Grad system. According to the mayor of Gorlovka Ivan Prikhodko, a man and a woman, as well as two girls aged 9 and 16, were injured as a result of the shelling. Both were diagnosed with concussion of the brain.
"A woman died in the village of Yasinovataya due to shelling by Ukrainian troops," the headquarters of the territorial DNR reported.
Meanwhile, it became known that the first foreign mercenaries began to arrive in Ukraine to participate in hostilities against Russian servicemen. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, about 200 mercenaries from Croatia arrived last week and joined one of the national battalions in southeastern Ukraine.
"Against the background of the encirclement and destruction by the Russian Armed Forces of the main groups of Ukrainian nationalists, Western countries have increased the dispatch of contractors of private military companies to combat areas. Foreign mercenaries who have arrived in Ukraine are committing sabotage and raids on Russian convoys of equipment and supplies, as well as aircraft covering them," said the official representative of the Russian Defense Ministry, Major General Igor Konashenkov.
At the same time, all attacks by foreign mercenaries, according to the Russian military, are carried out using weapons supplied by the West to the Kiev regime. We are talking about Javelin anti-tank complexes (USA), NLOW (UK) and portable anti-aircraft missile systems Stinger, the development of which requires serious training.
"Great Britain, Denmark, Latvia, Poland and Croatia have legally allowed their citizens to participate in hostilities on the territory of Ukraine. The command of the French Foreign Legion plans to send ethnic Ukrainian servicemen to help the Kiev regime," General Konashenkov said.
According to Zelensky, about 16 thousand foreign mercenaries are expected to arrive in Ukraine to join the existing ones. A visa-free regime is officially introduced for them. "All sent mercenaries are not entitled to the status of a prisoner of war. The best thing that awaits them when they are detained is criminal prosecution," the general concluded.
Ivan Petrov