MOSCOW, July 18. /TASS/. Russian mine disposal specialists have cleared of mines an area of nearly 5,000 hectares in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), Mikhail Mizintsev, the headquarters head and chief of Russia’s National Defense Management Center, said on Monday.
According to Mizintsev, who also heads the Russian Joint Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response in Ukraine, Russian specialists continue mine clearance operations in the DPR and LPR. "A total of 4,099.08 hectares, 41 buildings, including 13 socially important facilities, four bridges and 9.64 kilometers of motorways have been surveyed. As many as 66,936 explosive objects have been spotted and destroyed," he said.
Ukrainian troops have organized munitions depots in apartment blocks in the city of Dobropolye in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and deployed multiple rocket launch systems and armored vehicles in courtyards, Mizintsev said.
"Ukrainian servicemen have organized combat emplacements and munitions depots on ground floors of apartment blocks in Dobropolye in the Donetsk People’s Republic (Solnechny Kvartal Street) and deployed multiple rocket launch systems and armored vehicles in courtyards. Residents are banned from leaving their flats. As a matter of fact, the people are used as a human shield," he said.
According to Mizintsev, who also heads the Russian Joint Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response in Ukraine, Ukrainian troops deployed artillery and multiple rocket launch systems on the territory of school No8 in Kharkov. People were not evacuated from neighboring houses.
Apart from that, nationalists organized a combat emplacement in school No6 in Pavlodar, Dnepropetrovsk region. Munitions are stored in the building’s basement.
He stressed that such actions reveal the inhuman attitude of the Kiev regime to Ukrainian nationals and constitute a blatant violation of the norms of international humanitarian law. It is happening under the passive eye of the world community and international organizations, he added.
Mizintsev called on the United Nations, the World Health Organization, the International Committee of the Red Cross and other international organizations to stop ignoring the flagrant facts of the Kiev regime’s crimes against its own nationals, to press official Kiev to take measures to prevent the use of civil and medical infrastructure for military purposes.
Ukraine’s forces and militants are setting on fire grain fields in the Zaporozhye, Nikolayevsk, Kharkov and Kherson regions, using helicopters and artillery weapons, Mizintsev said.
"In the Zaporozhye, Nikolayevsk, Kharkov and Kherson regions, the Ukrainian servicemen jointly with militants of nationalist battalions are deliberately setting on fire grain fields using helicopters and artillery weapons," said Mizintsev, who also heads the Russian Joint Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response in Ukraine.
According to him, neo-Nazis have mounted artillery and MLRS (multiple launch rocket systems) on the territory of grain depots in the village of Kalinovka in the Bakhmutsky district in the Donetsk People’s Republic. They are systematically shelling the positions of Russia’s Armed Forces, provoking them to return fire.
The general stressed that these and other such provocations by Ukraine’s authorities are carried out amid the never-ending hysteria of "the civilized" West and their claims that Russia has artificially created a global food crisis. Soon fake news about alleged "atrocities by Russians" will be widely covered by Western and Ukrainian media outlets, Mizintsev warned.
A total of 30 tonnes of humanitarian cargoes were delivered to people in Ukraine’s Kherson region during the day, Mizintsev said.
"One humanitarian operation was conducted in the past day in the Kherson region. A total of 30 tonnes of humanitarian aid were distributed among people," he said.
According to Mizintsev, who also heads the Russian Joint Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response in Ukraine, since March 2, a total of 44,947.3 tonnes of humanitarian cargoes have already been delivered to Ukraine by Russia. As many as 1,321 humanitarian operations have been conducted.
He also said that six humanitarian operations were conducted in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Rdpublic, and in the Zaporozhye and Kharkov regions on July 18, 2022. As many as 303.4 tonnes of food and articles of daily necessity were handed out to people.