MOSCOW, March 25. /TASS/. The direst humanitarian crisis spanning eight years preceded the beginning of the special military operation, Mikhail Mizintsev, chief of the Russian National Defense Management Center, said at a briefing on Friday.

"The special military operation in Ukraine, which is pursuing certain goals and objectives, was preceded by an eight-year period of severe humanitarian disaster in Donbass, when human rights of over 6.5 million people had been violated and over 14,500 had been killed," he said.

According to Mizintsev, "as a result of nearly daily shelling by Ukraine’s Armed Forces and nationalist battalions, 4,115 basic facilities were destroyed and 55,310 more damaged. Among them were residential buildings, educational institutions, hospitals and other vital facilities."

"Over those eight years, the use of heavy weapons by Ukraine resulted in complete destruction of 19.5% of infrastructure in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics and in considerable damage to up to 37% of it," Mizintsev said.

The general said that "from April 2014 to February 2022, 1,451,304 refugees were forced to move to the Russian Federation alone."

"The escalation of the situation and the higher intensity of shelling of Donbass on February 18-23, 2022 prompted a sharp increase in the number of refugees. During those six days, 106,946 people crossed into Russia. The remaining part of the population, which is 3,600,940 civilians, including elderly people, children, women and socially vulnerable citizens, still stayed in basements under daily shelling without any basic necessities of life - without water, heating, electricity, food and medicines," Mizintsev said.

Indifference of the West

The chief of the Russian National Defense Management Center pointed out that during that period, which was far longer than the Second World War, "each day used to bring about numerous casualties."

"Nevertheless, the countries of the so-called civilized West, led by the United States, would intentionally hush this up, showing total indifference to the fate of millions of residents of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics," he continued.

"The special military operation began in the wake of that direst humanitarian crisis in Donbass," Mizintsev stated.