DONETSK, August 31. /TASS/. By locating ammunition depots in residential areas, the Ukrainian authorities are using a "human shield" to protect the military-industrial complex, Dmitry Barov, a military expert and the first commander of the unmanned systems units’ instructor training center in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), said in an interview with TASS.

"Essentially, for the authorities in Kiev, ‘human shields’ are the price they pay for boosting the survivability of their own military-industrial complex by dispersing and decentralizing it across civilian areas. The local population serves as the bargaining tool in this system," Barov said.

He also noted that the concept of a "human shield" is enshrined in international law and has a clear definition: it refers to using civilians or other people protected under international law to shield military facilities from enemy attack. "Ukrainian lawmaker Artyom Dmitruk has already publicly stated that deploying troops in the center of Kiev is a crime and that the authorities are deliberately using local residents as ‘human shields,’" Barov concluded.

Earlier, footage of ammunition detonating at a recreation facility in the Milaya settlement near Kiev was posted online. Later, Vladimir Zelensky acknowledged that the Ukrainian armed forces’ ammunition depot in the Milaya settlement in the Kiev Region, where a major fire and subsequent detonation occurred, was located in a residential area.