Armored cars of the People's Militia of the DPR at the entrance to Mariupol. File photoMOSCOW, April 4The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation on Monday announced the continuation of the offensive of the LPR and DPR groups — the settlement of Novobakhmutovka was liberated, the LPR units advanced 2 kilometers and blocked three settlements: Novotoshkovskoye, Borovskoye and Metelkino. Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24. President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years.» For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out «demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine», to bring to justice all war criminals responsible for «bloody crimes against civilians» in Donbass. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces strike only at military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops and , on March 25, completed the main tasks of the first stage — significantly reduced the combat potential of Ukraine. The main goal in the Russian military department was called the liberation of Donbass. Troop advancementThe grouping of troops of the Donetsk People's Republic, developing the offensive, captured the fortified area and liberated the settlement of Novobakhmutovka. During the fighting, up to a company of the enemy's 25th airborne brigade was destroyed, units of the People's Militia of the Luhansk Republic advanced to a depth of 2 kilometers and blocked the settlement of Novotoshkovskoye from the east and south, said Major General Igor Konashenkov, official representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense.
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On Monday night, the Russian military destroyed the command post of the 24th separate mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian army and military warehouses located nearby with an air strike near Lisichansk. In addition, on Monday night, Russian aviation hit 14 Ukrainian military facilities overnight, including 2 command posts, 2 Buk-M1 installations near Krasnogorka and Verkhnetoretsky, during the day the Russian Aerospace Forces aircraft hit another 17 military facilities of Ukraine, they said in Meanwhile, the FSB reported that a supporter of Ukrainian neo-Nazis was detained in Crimea, who was involved in the illegal possession of explosive devices and explosives. Bullying of the military The chairman of the RF Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin instructed to identify all Ukrainian nationalists who mocked the Russian military, depriving them of food , water and sleep, as well as systematically beating. The released Russian military on previously published videos said that the Ukrainian nationalists who captured them shot at them, deprived them of sleep, water, food, systematically beat them, kept them in unsuitable conditions, without even providing minimal medical care. The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation emphasized that all bullying violates the norms of international law. The provisions of the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War establish that inhumane treatment and actions that endanger the health of prisoners of war are considered a serious violation of the convention.
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Expulsion of Diplomats and New Sanctions As Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, Russia categorically rejects any accusations of involvement in the deaths of people in the Ukrainian Bucha, which the Russian Defense Ministry called a provocation, the topic should be discussed at the international level. And Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called the situation around this city another fake attack. On Monday, the Russian ambassador was summoned to the German Foreign Ministry in connection with the provocation around Bucha: Germany decided to declare 40 employees of Russian diplomatic and consular institutions in the country persona non grata. In addition, Agence France-Presse, citing sources close to the French Foreign Ministry, reported that Paris intends to expel 35 Russian diplomats. Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg did not rule out the expulsion of Russian diplomats from the country. In addition, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said on Monday that the country was lowering the level of diplomatic relations with Russia and expelling the Russian ambassador, according to him, the Lithuanian ambassador would return from Moscow to his homeland already in the near future. Also on Monday, the State Department announced that the United States, in coordination with its allies, is preparing to impose new sanctions against the Russian Federation, seeking to strengthen Kyiv's position in negotiations with Moscow. On the same day, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry told reporters that a summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelensky could be convened when there was a result in the negotiations. >Cases of the expulsion of Russian diplomats from different countries in 2021-2022 Earlier, the Ukrainian authorities and the media distributed a video allegedly filmed in the city of Bucha, Kiev region, where the bodies of the dead lie on the road. Many Internet users questioned the credibility of Kyiv's accusations against Moscow, noting that there was no blood near the bodies on the ground, and some of the dead had white armbands on their sleeves and could have been killed by Ukrainian security forces or territorial defense. Also, users noticed that the “dead” move their hands, and when looking in the rear-view mirror of the operator’s car, it seems that one of the “dead” changes position as soon as the car passes by. The Russian Defense Ministry said that all photos published by the Kiev regime and video materials allegedly showing some kind of «crimes» by Russian servicemen in the city of Bucha, Kiev region, are «another provocation.» As noted in the military department, during the time this settlement was under the control of the Russian Armed Forces, not a single local resident suffered from any violent actions. The ministry noted that all Russian units completely left Bucha on March 30, and exits from the city in the northern direction were not blocked, while the southern outskirts, including residential areas, were shelled by Ukrainian troops around the clock from large-caliber artillery, tanks and multiple launch rocket systems. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov pointed out on Monday that Russia categorically rejects any accusations of involvement in the deaths in Bucha and demands that international leaders not rush to sweeping accusations against Russia, but listen to Moscow's arguments. According to him, Russian diplomats will continue to promote the topic of the provocation in Bucha on the agenda of the UN Security Council.