MOSCOW, April 18. /TASS/. Kiev, supported by the West, is plotting to stage provocations involving shelling attacks on Orthodox churches in a number of Ukrainian regions on Easter night, Head of Russia’s National Defense Management Center Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev said on Monday.

"According to credible information, the Kiev regime, supported by a number of Western countries, is completing preparations for contrived provocations involving numerous casualties in the Zaporozhye, Nikolaev, Odessa, Sumy and Kharkov regions," said Mizintsev, who heads Russia’s interagency coordination center for humanitarian response in Ukraine.

According to him, nationalist battalions have formed over 70 mobile groups on truck vans and off-road vehicles equipped with mortars. Mizintsev noted that these groups "have been tasked with shelling Orthodox churches on Easter night (on the night of April 23-24, 2022) in order to blame Russian troops for committing mass civilian killings on this sacred holiday," the general stressed.

Mizintsev added that Kiev also sought to engage Western reporters to show "atrocities committed by Russians" and "promptly hype up" fake stories. "The Ukrainian authorities’ plans to stage such provocations make it clear that they don’t care about their own people at all," the head of Russia’s National Defense Management Center stressed.