MOSCOW, May 17./TASS/. Neo-Nazis from the Azov battalion have organized strongholds and barracks in kindergartens of Mirnograd, the Donetsk People’s Republic, and Borovaya, the Kharkov region, as well as deployed weapons there, Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, chief of Russia’s National Defense Management Center, said on Tuesday.

"In Borovaya, the Kharkov region, neo-Nazis of the Azov battalion have organized barracks in the building of a school and in Beryozka kindergarten, deploying heavy military hardware to the premises," said Mizintsev, who heads the Russian Joint Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response in Ukraine. "Moreover, civilians with children are forcibly held in basements," he stressed.

According to the colonel-general, neo-Nazis also equipped strongholds and barracks in a kindergarten and a care home in Mirnograd of the Donetsk People’s Republic. "Armored vehicles and artillery were deployed in close vicinity to residential neighborhoods," he stressed.

On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in response to a request for help by the heads of the Donbass republics. He stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories, but aimed to demilitarize and denazify the country. That said, DPR and LPR launched their operation to liberate their territories, which are under Kiev's control.