Pro-Russian Donetsk People’s Republic Opens Embassy in Moscow

 

Online News Editor The foreign ministry of the self-proclaimed breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic inaugurated its embassy in Moscow on Tuesday as Russia continued its offensive to capture the entire region in eastern Ukraine.

DPR’s foreign minister Natalia Nikonorova led the inauguration, which was held without festivities, and introduced the ambassador, Olga Makeva.

“We have opened our embassy on a working basis and we are aware of the need to put it into operation and help our citizens,” Nikonorova told reporters at the opening, according to Russian TV.

On February 21, just three days before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, president Vladimir Putin recognized for the first time the independence of the two Russian-backed separatist regimes in parts of Donetsk and Luhansk, regions in eastern Ukraine that are known as the Donbas.

In announcing the invasion, Putin said “liberating” the region was a key target of the Russian “special military operation”.

On Sunday, at least 36 civilians were killed in a Russian missile strike against an apartment building in Chasiv Yar, in Donetsk, in one of the deadliest attacks launched by the Kremlin since the start of the invasion.

Local authorities have also said that more than 30 people could still be trapped under the rubble.