Russia Calls WHO Is 'Silent' About Using Hospitals For Ukraine Combat Operations, Says There Are 6.824 Mercenaries

Ilustrasi tentara Ukraina. (Wikimedia Commons Ministry of Defense of Ukraine)

JAKARTA - Russia has called the World Health Organization (WHO) 'silent' by not giving an assessment, regarding the use of hospitals by the Ukrainian side in combat operations, revealing there are thousands of foreign troops.

The head of the Russian National Defense Management Center, Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, said at the weekend that the WHO had not yet assessed the fact that neo-Nazis turned medical facilities across Ukraine into their stronghold.

According to the general, the Ukrainian armed forces and nationalist battalions deployed their firing positions and heavy weapons to kindergartens and secondary schools, municipal and medical facilities throughout Ukraine, including in the regions of Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporozhye, Kyiv, Odessa, Sumy, Kharkov, and Chernigov.

"The World Health Organization has not given a proper assessment of the fact that medical institutions are not being used by neo-Nazis for their original purposes, such as medical treatment, but as bulwarks and firing points to carry out military operations," said Mizintsev, who also heads the Joint Coordination Headquarters. Russia for the Humanitarian Response in Ukraine, quoted from TASS April 18.

Separately, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said on Sunday that Kyiv has employed more than 6.800 foreign mercenaries from 63 countries since Russia started special operations.

"The Kyiv nationalist regime has employed a total of 6,824 foreign mercenaries from 63 countries since the start of the special military operation," he said.

He added that most of the mercenaries, 1.717 people, were from Poland, about 1.500 from the US, Canada, and Romania. Up to 300 people arrived from Britain and Georgia respectively, while 193 people came from areas of Syria controlled by Turkey.