Russia Says Ukrainian Nationalists Block 450 Civilians In Monastery, Soldiers Use Children's Shields To Live In Schools

Ukrainian military illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/armyinform.com.ua)

JAKARTA - Ukrainian Nationalists have blockaded more than 450 civilians, including women and children, at the Nikolo-Vasilyevsky monastery located on the territory of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev, head of Russia's National Defense Management Center, said Wednesday. .

"Neo-Nazis have blockaded more than 450 civilians, including children, women with infants, the elderly and critically ill patients in need of life support as well as cancer and insulin dependent patients, at the Nikolo-Vasilyevsky Monastery, in the Volnovakha district of the People's Republic. Donetsk," said Mizintsev, who heads Russia's Joint Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response in Ukraine.

Colonel General Mizintsev further explained, the monastery and the only way to it "was bombarded relentlessly with mortars and heavy machine guns, several killed and wounded."

He stressed that, given the current conditions, it was practically impossible to send vital medicines, food and daily necessities to the monastery or evacuate people.

"The techniques and patterns of cruel treatment of civilians that were proven by Nazi executioners during the Second World War, are now practiced in a very sophisticated way by Ukrainian neo-Nazis," he said.

Mizintsev also said the Ukrainian armed forces were setting up firing positions at schools and medical facilities in the cities of Kramatorsk and Zaporozhye.

"The Ukrainian Armed Forces continue to position shootings at School No. 29 in Zaporozhye, School No. 20 in Kramatorsk, in hospital buildings and at blood transfusion centers. Local residents, medics and patients are forcibly detained there as human shields," he said. .