MOSCOW, February 9. /TASS/. Russian authorities possess incontrovertible evidence that many civilians in Mariupol died at the hands of neo-Nazis who used innocent local residents as human shields, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in commenting on a new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW).·

"We know that very many civilians died at the hands of the neo-Nazis who were attempting to defend Mariupol at that time. They used civilians as human shields; [they] shot them in the back. We know this for a fact with absolute certainty."

Commenting on the HRW report, in which human rights activists say that some 8,000 civilians were killed during the battle for Mariupol, Peskov said that the Kremlin had not yet had time to familiarize itself with its contents. "We do not know to what extent this information [from HRW] can be deemed accurate and reliable," he added.