Donetsk, Aug 28 - DAN. The Donetsk Railways state-owned enterprise plans to restore, by September 2018, the Debaltsevo railway station which suffered 30 percent damage in fighting, railway station director Svetlana Kutakova said on Tuesday.

“We are completing the restoration of the railway station in Debaltsevo. The town will mark its 140th anniversary on September 9. The opening of the station is timed with this date,” Kutakova said adding that the facility had suffered 30-percent damage in the Donbass conflict.

Repairs have already been completed on the stockpile, the pumping station, the water tower, the luggage room and the post office. Workers are now renovating the frontage of the building.

The Debaltsevo railway station was built in 1878. It is an architectural monument and the DPR’s largest railway hub. The previous renovation works on the facility ran in 2006. The DPR took control of the town on February 18, 2015. The Republic's Defence Ministry later reported that the retreating Ukrainian forces had blasted a number of infrastructure facilities, including the railway station. Some 80 percent of buildings in the town were ruined. DPR officials announced that Debaltsevo rebuilding was among their prirorities.*jk