Russia Says Ukrainian Nationalists Shoot Residents Who Wanted To Leave Chernigov For Safe Areas

Victims of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Wikimedia Commons/VOA/Yan Bochat)

JAKARTA - Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev, head of Russia's National Defense Management Center, said a Ukrainian nationalist group shot and killed civilians in Chernigov for asking them to leave the city to a safer area.

"In the same city (Chernigov) a group of local residents, driven by the serious humanitarian situation (of the remaining 120,000 people, more than half are sick and do not have medical treatment, because hospitals are filled with militants from the Ukrainian armed forces and territorial defense), appealed to the government with requests to go to safer areas," he said, launching TASS March 25.

"As a result, the activists were detained by the Ukrainian Security Service and several people were later shot and killed," Colonel General Mizintsev continued.

Colonel General Mizintsev further said that in Chernigov, a bridge over the Desna River, part of the highway to Kiev, was blown up under orders from the city chief and the regional head of military administration.

According to him, it was done by the authorities to prevent whatever attempts were made by the locals, to leave the city.

He added that most of the population, forcibly detained by radicals in Ukrainian cities, are still looking for opportunities to flee to Russia, as evidenced by the many calls from citizens, through various channels to Russian government institutions.