Ukrainian soldier in Kharkiv. Archival photoMOSCOW, April 7 Militants fired at checkpoints in the Kharkiv region in Ukraine, cars with civilians who independently tried to leave for Russia, there are wounded, said the head of the Interdepartmental Coordination Headquarters of the Russian Federation for Humanitarian Response in Ukraine — Head of the National Center for Defense Control of the Russian Federation, Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev. «In the Kharkiv region, at checkpoints located at the exits from the settlements of Dergachi and Slatino, militants of one of the nationalist battalions fired at cars with civilians who independently tried to leave in the direction of the Russian Federation. There are wounded,» Mizintsev said. 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 genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years.» For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out «demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine.» According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, as of March 25, the Armed Forces completed the main tasks of the first stage — they significantly reduced the combat potential of Ukraine. The main goal in the Russian military department was the liberation of Donbass. In the DPR, Ukrainian troops were driven out of Volnovakha, a strategically important regional center south of Donetsk; there are battles for Mariupol, the largest city on the coast of the Sea of Azov. In the LPR, according to a statement by the Russian Ministry of Defense on March 25, 93% of the territory of the former Lugansk region was taken under control. Only the cities of Severodonetsk and Lysichansk, as well as a number of other settlements of this agglomeration, remain under the rule of Kyiv.
