The Joint Coordination Headquarters of the Russian Federation for Humanitarian Response, in cooperation with the authorized federal executive bodies and law enforcement agencies, continues to record in detail numerous facts of the inhuman attitude of the Kiev authorities towards their own people and the organization of provocations against the civilian population of Ukraine.
Today at around 2 p.m. near Dolgenkoe, Kharkov region, with the aim of accusing the Russian army of using chemical weapons, the Ukrainian security service and nationalists carried out an explosion of a tanker with fertilizer, presumably ammonium nitrate, which resulted in a cloud of orange smoke that dissipated after some time. There were no casualties as a result of this provocation among the military and the local population.
The Russian side has repeatedly warned of such provocations being prepared by the nationalists, the main purpose of which is to force additional military aid from the West by the Kiev regime.
In Kramatorsk-Slavyansk agglomeration, just as previously in Mariupol, AFU units equipped united fortified area of over 170 sq km and created the necessary reserves of weapons, ammunition, fuel, food and medicines. In densely populated areas, the militants have placed heavy weapons and equipment, set up firing points in houses, kept locals in basements under the pretext of allegedly ensuring their safety, and sprayed signs on building walls saying “Attention! Children!”, “There are children here! Don’t shoot!”.
In total, over 90,000 civilians are blockaded by nationalists in residential areas and on the grounds of more than a dozen large industrial enterprises in Kramatorsk and Slavyansk, using them as “human shield”. Any attempts by civilians to evacuate on their own to safe areas, either towards Russia or to Kiev-controlled territory, are harshly suppressed by fighters from nationalist battalions.
The particular cynicism of such actions is that the Kiev regime is prepared to sacrifice thousands of lives of its own citizens to achieve its criminal goals, which fully replicates the methods used by the Nazis during the Great Patriotic War to create “fortress cities”.
Once again, we emphasize to the world community that such actions of Ukrainian neo-Nazis against civilians contradict all generally accepted norms of morality and principles of international humanitarian law and, in fact, are crimes against humanity and terrorism, while officials of the Kiev regime and direct executors are war criminals and terrorists.
Understanding the real threat of a catastrophic humanitarian situation with many civilian casualties in Kramatorsk and Slavyansk cities, we call on the international community, the United Nations, the OSCE, the International Committee of the Red Cross and other international organizations to immediately take all measures to safely evacuate civilians from these cities controlled by AFU units as soon as possible.
According to available information, at the exit from Dnepr city via Kaidak bridge, militants of the territorial defence battalions only allow civilians to pass in the direction of the Donetsk People’s Republic and Kharkov region for a fixed fee, demanding “unaffordable” money of 200$ per person for most ordinary people. In addition, it has been reliably established that this bridge is mined and will be blown up if Russian units and formations of the Donetsk People’s Republic approach.
Subsequently, the Ukrainian side plans to cynically accuse the Russian Armed Forces of allegedly indiscriminate strikes against vital social infrastructure, following a well-tested scenario.
We stress once again that in carrying out the tasks of the special military operation, the Russian Armed Forces treat the civilian population with the utmost humanity and do not strike at civilian infrastructure.
Despite all the difficulties and obstacles posed by Kiev, over the past 24 hours, without the involvement of the Ukrainian authorities, 9,456 people, including 1,353 children, have been evacuated from dangerous areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics and Ukraine to the Russian Federation.
Since the beginning of the special military operation, a total of 1,217,681 people have been evacuated, including 211,577 children. The state border of the Russian Federation was crossed by 158,066 personal vehicles including 1,415 per day.
We continue to maintain a sufficient number of comfortable buses at checkpoints to transport people to their chosen places of residence or temporary accommodation, where hot meals are provided and qualified medical and psychological assistance is provided in a timely manner.
More than 9,500 temporary accommodation centres continue to operate in the regions of the Russian Federation. The refugees are dealt with on an individual basis and are promptly assisted with various pressing issues relating to onward accommodation, employment assistance, places for children in kindergartens and educational institutions, and the provision of entitlements to social benefits.
Over the past 24 hours, the hotline of the Interdepartmental Coordination Headquarters of the Russian Federation for Humanitarian Response, federal executive authorities, constituent entities of the Russian Federation and various NGOs received 123 requests from foreign and Ukrainian citizens to evacuate to Russia, the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics, as well as to the Russian Armed Forces-controlled areas of Zaporozhye, Nikolaev, Kharkov and Kherson regions. In total there are 2,755,353 such appeals from 2,135 locations in Ukraine in the database.
In addition, 75 foreign vessels from 17 countries remain blocked in 7 Ukrainian ports (Kherson, Nikolaev, Chernomorsk, Ochakov, Odessa, Yuzhniy and Mariupol).
The threat of shelling and high mine danger created by official Kiev in its internal waters and territorial sea prevents vessels from safely leaving the ports and reaching the open sea.
In confirmation of this, the Russian Federation is opening daily from 08:00 to 19:00 (Moscow time) a humanitarian corridor, which is a safe lane south-west of Ukraine’s territorial sea, 80 nautical miles long and 3 nautical miles wide.
Detailed information in English and Russian on the modus operandi of the maritime humanitarian corridor is broadcast daily every 15 minutes on VHF radio on 14 and 16 international channels in English and Russian.
At the same time, the Kiev authorities continue to avoid engaging with representatives of states and ship-owning companies to resolve the issue of ensuring the safe passage of foreign vessels to the assembly area.
The danger to navigation from Ukrainian mines drifting off their anchors along the coasts of Black Sea states remains.
The Russian Federation is taking a full range of comprehensive measures to ensure the safety of civilian navigation in the waters of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.
Federal executive authorities, together with the subjects of the Russian Federation, various public organizations, patriotic movements, continue to accumulate humanitarian aid.
More than 23,000 tonnes of basic necessities and food kits, including baby food and life-saving medicines, have been prepared at collection points.
WtR