AFU servicemen. Archival photoMOSCOW, May 8.In Slavyansk, neo-Nazis mined railway and road bridges, said Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, head of the National Defense Control Center of Russia. «Slavyansk-Kramatorsk» and the road bridge across the Sukhoi Torets River, which are planned to be blown up, blaming the alleged «advancing units of the Russian troops,» he said at a briefing.
Militants severely suppress attempts of civilians to evacuate from ZaporozhyeIn Kramatorsk, according to Mizintsev, militants equipped firing positions at school No. 20 and kindergarten No. 87, and residents of nearby houses are forcibly kept in the basements. All approaches to the facilities are mined, the Colonel General added. In addition, in the building of the Children's Regional Infectious Clinical Hospital No. 22 in Kharkiv, the nationalists placed a strong point and an ammunition depot, and artillery mounts were placed on the adjacent territory, Mizintsev said. He clarified that the hospital staff and all civilians, including seriously ill children, were forced to leave the medical facility under the threat of physical violence. Russia launched a special 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 Kyiv 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.
