MOSCOW, March 22./TASS/. Ukrainian radicals are holding hostage as the human shield over 4.5 million citizens in Kiev, Kharkov, Chernigov, Sumy and other cities, as well as 6,862 nationals of 25 states, Mikhail Mizintsev, chief of Russia’s National Defense Management Center, said on Tuesday.

"Despite the daily opening humanitarian corridors, Ukrainian neo-Nazis continue to hold hostage as the human shield over 4.5 million civilians in Kiev, Kharkov, Chernigov, Sumy and more than 20 other large communities, as well as 6,862 nationals of 25 foreign states, who by circumstance found themselves on the territory of Ukraine," he said.

Besides, according to Mizintsev, 67 ships from 15 countries remain blocked in seaports of Ukraine due to high mine hazards created by the Kiev authorities in their internal waters and the territorial sea.