The Russian Federation’s Joint Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response, in co-operation with the authorised federal executive authorities, continues to carefully record the continuing egregious facts of the inhumane treatment of civilians by Kiev authorities. Nationalist battalion fighters and AFU units, using civilians as human shields, continue to use civilian infrastructure to equip strongholds and deploy heavy weaponry:
in Odessa, firing positions have been equipped in the buildings of schools No. 14 and No. 71, and armoured vehicles, artillery and MLRS have been placed in the surrounding area;
in Kostantinovka, Donetsk People’s Republic, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have equipped strongholds, deployed artillery and MLRS weapons in School No. 1 and the administrative building and dormitory of Vocational School No. 39 and are holding residents of nearby houses in the premises of educational institutions under the pretext of ensuring security;
in Gorskoe, Lugansk People’s Republic Ukrainian nationalists have equipped firing positions and ammunition depots on the lower and upper floors of apartment buildings on Gagarin Street. Local residents are forbidden to leave their flats, and all attempts by citizens to evacuate to safe areas are severely curtailed.
In addition, in Lisichansk, Lugansk People’s Republic, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have placed artillery and MLRS in the building and hangars of the rare gases plant, mined tanks with hazardous chemicals, and forcibly detained employees and local residents in the underground facilities. At the same time, the nationalists are systematically shelling positions of the Russian Armed Forces and Lugansk People’s Republic formations with MLRS, thus provoking them to retaliate in order to further accuse them of killing civilians and creating a man-made disaster in the city.
In Putivl, Sumy Region, Ukrainian neo-Nazis have mined bridges across the Seim and Lyubka rivers, which they plan to blow up and accuse the Russian Armed Forces of allegedly indiscriminate strikes on vital civilian infrastructure in a well-known scenario.
These facts once again demonstrate the Ukrainian authorities’ complete disregard for the norms of morality and the provisions of international humanitarian law. All this is happening with the tacit consent of the “Russophobe-influenced” countries of the so-called collective West, which continue to turn a blind eye to the numerous war crimes of the Kiev regime.
We emphasize once again that in carrying out the tasks of the special military operation, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation treat the local population extremely humanely and do not strike at civilian infrastructure facilities, unlike the Ukrainian armed formations.
Despite all the difficulties and obstacles imposed by the Ukrainian side, over the past day, without the participation of Kiev, 13,428 people were evacuated from dangerous areas, 930 of them children, and in total, since the beginning of the special military operation, 1,426,979 people have already been evacuated, of which 238,329 are children. The state border of the Russian Federation was crossed by 195,700 personal vehicles including 697 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 102 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 2,756,228 such appeals from 2,136 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.
Demining detachments of the Russian Armed Forces and the EMERCOM of Russia are carrying out land and facility clearance tasks in the territory of the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics. A total of 1,623.21 hectares were checked (including 0.03 hectares during the day), 35 buildings (including 13 socially important facilities), 1 bridge and 9.64 km of roads. 9,364 explosives were detected and defused, 12 of them during the day.
Federal executive authorities, together with the subjects of the Russian Federation, various public organizations, patriotic movements, continue to accumulate humanitarian aid. More than 26,5 tonnes of basic necessities and food kits, including baby food and life-saving medicines, have been prepared at collection points.
The greatest contributors to the relief effort were:
Ministry of the Russian Federation for Civil Defence, Emergencies and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters, Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Economic Development, Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media, Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography, Federal Agency for Maritime and River Transport, Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, the Federal Agency for Nationalities, the Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad and International Humanitarian Cooperation;
republics of Buryatia, Dagestan, Crimea, Tatarstan, Chechen Republic, Altai, Trans-Baikal, Krasnodar and Primorsky Krais, Arkhangelsk, Belgorod, Bryansk, Kursk, Leningrad, Moscow, Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Rostov, Tula and Ulyanovsk regions, as well as Moscow city;
Among political parties and non-profit organisations: United Russia, the People’s Front All-Russian Public Movement, the All-Russian Public Organisation of Veterans Boyevoe Bratstvo, the Russian Humanitarian Mission autonomous non-profit organisation for the support of humanitarian programmes, and the All-Russian Public and Governmental Organisation Union of Women of Russia.
Since March 2, 21,920.4 tons of humanitarian cargo have already been delivered to Ukraine, 1,045 humanitarian actions have been carried out, including 1 action in Kherson Region, during which 50 tons of basic necessities, medicines and food were transferred to the civilian population of the liberated areas.
On May 23, 3 humanitarian actions have been planned and are currently being carried out in Kharkov and Kherson regions, during which 510.4 tons of basic necessities, medicine and food will be distributed.
WtR