MOSCOW, May 27. /TASS/. Ukrainian nationalists open fire against settlements in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) using a Tochka-U missile system and multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) deployed at the Seversk grain silo, triggering Russian troops to return fire, Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, chief of Russia’s National Defense Management Center, said on Friday.
"A Tochka-U missile system and MLRS have been deployed at the granary in Seversk," he said.
"Moreover, the nationalists are continuously shelling populated localities of the Donetsk People’s Republic, provoking the Russian Armed Forces to return fire, so as to blame Russian troops for alleged indiscriminate strikes on civilian infrastructure, in accordance with the scenario they have worked on before," said Mizintsev, who heads the Russian Joint Coordination Headquarters in Ukraine.
In addition, the colonel general said that nationalists had set up ammo depots at the poultry factory in Kazachya Lopan, Kharkov Region. Military equipment is in its hangars, while the factory’s employee are held as hostage in the basement of one of the administrative buildings.
Ukrainian nationalists have set up strongholds and deployed artillery pieces and multiple rocket launchers (MLRS) in a school and college in Kramatorsk, Mizintsev said.
"Armed nationalist formations have set up strongholds and deployed artillery pieces and MLRS in Lyceum No. 65 and Kramatorsk Vocational Education Center No. 47 on Yubileynaya Street in Kramatorsk. They are also holding residents of nearby houses on the premises of the educational institutions under the pretext of security," said Mizintsev, who heads the Russian Joint Coordination Headquarters in Ukraine.
Additionally, the territorial defense battalions set up firing points and sniper’s nests in residential buildings on Klotchkovskaya Street in Kharkov and on Tsiolkovsky Street in Konstantinovka of the Donetsk People’s Republic.
"However, none of the civilians has been evacuated from the buildings," the general noted.