MOSCOW, April 13. /TASS/. Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev, head of Russia’s National Defense Management Center, has said three new nationalist battalions made up of convicts, who were imprisoned for serious and extremely serious crimes, are to stop people from leaving Kharkov and kill Ukrainian troops if they retreat or try to surrender.

"Kharkov is completing to form three new nationalist battalions - Slabozhanshchina, Kharkivchina-1 and Kharkivchina-2 - that are made up of convicts, who were imprisoned in the Alexeyevskaya and No. 43 correctional facilities for serious and extremely serious crimes," he said.

Mizintsev said "the main tasks for these battalions is to blockade Kharkov from the south and stop locals from leaving the city and to destroy Ukrainian units in the event they retreat or try to surrender.".