A serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kharkiv region. Archival photoMOSCOW, May 27.Ukrainian territorial defense fighters continue to place heavy weapons in residential buildings and educational institutions, said Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, head of the National Center for Defense Control of the Russian Federation. «In residential buildings in Kharkov along the street Klochkovskaya and in Konstantinovka of the Donetsk People's Republic along Tsiolkovsky Street, militants of the territorial defense battalions equipped firing positions and sniper points. At the same time, civilians were not evacuated from buildings,» Mizintsev said. In the Kramatorsk Center for Vocational Education No. 47 on Yubileinaya Street, units of armed nationalist formations equipped strongholds, placed artillery pieces and MLRS, and residents of nearby houses are kept in the premises under the pretext of ensuring security. Warehouses with ammunition have been built, military equipment is stored in the hangars, and factory personnel are forcibly kept in the basement of one of the administrative buildings, the head of the NCUO noted. Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24. Russian President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years.» 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 called the liberation of Donbass.
