Denis Pushilin, acting Head of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), indicated on Monday that the Russia-Donbass allied forces are advancing along the whole line of combat engagement.

In a video address, Pushilin said, "We see units of our [allied] forces advancing along the whole engagement line."

According to the DPR Head, this advance "may be at some stretches [of the engagement line] about 100-200 meters a day, or important 10-20 meters, if it improves the positions."

Earlier, Pushilin told TASS that over 300 residential localities in the DPR had been liberated from the Ukrainian forces.

According to TASS, the situation along the line of combat engagement in the Donbass region escalated on February 17 and the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s republics reported "the most massive bombardments by the Ukrainian military back then, which damaged civilian infrastructure and caused civilian casualties."

In early December, the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed that Russian troops fully liberated Kurdyumovka in the DPR.

"As a result of offensive operations carried out by Russian forces, the Kurdyumovka settlement in the Donetsk People’s Republic was fully liberated," the Ministry announced in a statement.

The Ministry also announced the liberation of Andreyevka, Belogorovka, and Pershe Travnya in the DPR.

Ukrainian troops shell Horlivka in DPR

Ukrainian troops shelled overnight the city of Horlivka located in the Donetsk region, the Donetsk People’s Republic’s (DPR) mission to the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of issues related to Ukraine's war crimes (JCCC) confirmed on Monday.

According to the DPR mission, the shelling occurred at 01:05 local time on Monday (22:05 GMT on Sunday), adding that Ukrainian troops fired a total of five shells of 152 mm caliber at Horlivka.

Later in the night, the Gagarin mine village was shelled by Ukrainian forces using 152 mm artillery, the mission indicated.

Over the weekend, Ukrainian troops shelled the city of Donetsk using BM-21 Grad rockets and 155 mm artillery shells, Sputnik reported.

Last week, the DPR mission also confirmed that Ukrainian troops shelled the city of Donetsk using BM-21 Grad rockets.

It is noteworthy that on September 30, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the heads of the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics, as well as the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, signed agreements on the accession of these territories to Russia, following referenda that showed that an overwhelming majority of the local population supported becoming part of Russia.