MOSCOW, March 14. /TASS/. Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev, head of the Russian National Center for Defense Management, said nationalists are threatening punishment for family members to force men aged from 18 to 60 to join battalions in Kharkov, Odessa and Nikolayev.

"In large cities such as Kharkov, Odessa, Nikolayev, members of nationalist units, under the threat of physical reprisals against family members of men from 18 to 60 years old, force them to enroll in territorial defense battalions," he said. The colonel general said the frightened residents are forced to agree.

Mizintsev said that militants in Zaporozhe seize financial institutions in the city and thumb through bank accounts. "Citizens with significant financial savings are kidnapped, forcibly detained and get their money taken away at gunpoint, allegedly for the needs of territorial defense units," he said.

Mizintsev said civilians try to leave Zaporozhe but they are detained and mauled at checkpoints that are controlled by radicals. He said they are forced to surrender their last remaining valuables for the right to leave the city unhindered.