Ukrainian soldier in Severodonetsk. Archival photo MOSCOW, May 12. Ukrainian troops plan to continue to hide behind civilians in the cities of Lisichansk and Severodonetsk in the LPR, using them as human shields, which will significantly complicate the liberation of these territories from enemy troops, said the head of the LPR, Leonid Pasechnik. «According to the information that we have, the enemy has prepared a fairly serious stronghold in the cities of Lisichansk and Severodonetsk and intends to continue to implement the practice of protecting civilians. That is, to use them as a human shield in front of him,» Pasechnik said on the air of the TV channel «Russia 24».
A whole brigade of the Ukrainian military has left Lisichansk, the Ambassador of the LNR said LPR combat missions. «Our task is to preserve the lives of the civilian population of those territories that we liberate as much as possible,» the head of the LPR emphasized. 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 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.
