poroshenko
© Reuters/Valentyn OgirenkoUkraine's President Petro Poroshenko talks to military staff in Kiev February 14, 2015.
Ukraine's President Pyotr Poroshenko congratulated Donetsk residents with Donetsk City Day on Sunday and vowed to restore the buildings and infrastructure destroyed by the Ukrainian army's shelling.

"I congratulate Donetsk residents with their City Day. We'll necessarily restore the towns and villages that were destroyed. Donbass is and will be Ukrainian," Poroshenko wrote in his Facebook account.

Donetsk residents were earlier congratulated by Head of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) Alexander Zakharchenko.

"I congratulate you heartily with the City Day holiday, which we're celebrating for the first time as residents of the capital of an independent state," Zakharchenko said.

"I'm convinced that Donetsk residents' industriousness and courage, their firm character and love for their home city will help restore Donetsk and soon a new stage will begin in the development of the Donbass region," Zakharchenko said.

Kiev has officially stopped paying pensions and social benefits to residents of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics. Also, both republics have been recently encircled by the Ukrainian military, with Kiev concentrating about 90,000 troops and more than 430 tanks in the area and blocking the transit of passengers and transport.

According to the UN data, over 6,500 people have been killed as a result of Kiev's military operation in the country's east and another 16,200 have been wounded. Over 5 million residents of the Donbass region need humanitarian assistance.