Russia says Ukrainian radicals harass Kharkov Region residents

Mikhail Mizintsev, head of Russia’s National Defense Management Center, on Monday said fighters of the nationalist battalion Kraken, which recruited convicts, carry out punitive raids in the Kharkov Region against residents that are suspected by the Ukrainian Security Service, known as SBU, of pro-Russian views.

“Militants of the nationalist unit Kraken, comprised mainly of radicals and rapists and murderers released from prisons, conduct punitive raids in the Kharkov Region, during which the so-called death squads at night break into the houses of local residents that are suspected by the SBU of pro-Russian sentiments, subject them to physical violence and take them away to unknown locations,” he said.

Mizintsev said dozens of people that had been detained that way haven’t yet returned home and there are no reports about what happened to them.

 The general said that these criminal acts and provocations by the Kiev regime once again demonstrate the inhuman attitude of the Ukrainian authorities to the fate of their own citizens and indicate a complete disregard for the norms and principles of international humanitarian law.

“Applying the policy of double standards, the collective West is absolutely not interested in conducting an impartial investigation and finding those responsible for the current catastrophic humanitarian situation in Ukraine, but essentially turns a blind eye to the numerous violations of international conventions by the Ukrainian side, shifting the blame on the Russian Federation without evidence,” Mizintsev said.

Mizintsev said fighters of the Right Sector (banned in Russia) group set up firing positions and sniper positions in residential houses in the villages of Borovskoye of the Lugansk People’s Republic and prevent residents from evacuating.

Ukrainian troops, militants of territorial defense battalions and foreign mercenaries have organized combat emplacements and deployed weapons and munitions in dwelling houses and schools in Kharkov and in cities of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Mizintsev said.

Local residents are kept by force in basement premises under the pretext of security considerations,” said Mizintsev, pointing out that the surroundings of these buildings are mined with no warnings issued to the locals.

Apart from that, according to Mizintsev, Ukrainian troops and mercenaries deployed heavy weapons and organized a combat emplacement and a munitions depot in a boarding school in Kramatorsk.

Itar Tass