MOSCOW, June 7. /TASS/. Mikhail Mizintsev, head of Russia’s National Defense Management Center, on Tuesday said Ukrainian forces place heavy armored vehicles, multiple launch rocket systems and US howitzers at grain silos in the Kharkov Region and the Donetsk People’s Republic to shell Russian border areas.

"Units of Ukrainian armed forces placed artillery weapons of the Western type (tentatively US-made M777 howitzers) at the Zolochevsky grain silo in the Kharkov Region that they use to shell border areas of the Russian Federation," he said.

In addition, he said fighters of Ukrainian nationalist units placed artillery and MLRS at the Novodonetskoye village of the DPR and use them to regularly shell nearby population centers.

Mizintsev said units of the armed forces of Ukraine are deployed inside grain and potato storage facilities in the settlement of Novoekonomicheskoye of the DPR and the village of Novovasilyevka of the Sumy Region, while heavy armored vehicles, large-caliber artillery and MLRS are located nearby.

"The purpose of such actions by Ukrainian nationalists is to provoke return fire, and then, according to a tried and tested scenario that involves widespread coverage in Ukrainian and Western news media, accuse the Russian armed forces of allegedly indiscriminate strikes on civilian infrastructure and creating a threat to Ukraine's food security," the general said.