Ukraine forces booby-trap civilian infrastructure in DPR
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The Russian military says the Ukrainian armed forces booby-trapped civilian facilities and infrastructure in the Donetsk People's Republic.
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Russian soldiers patrol a street on April 11, 2022, in Volnovakha in the Donetsk People's Republic (AFP)
Ukrainian troops holed up at a college and registry office in Bakhmut, Donetsk People's Republic, have booby-trapped the entrances to the facilities without warning civilians, senior Russian military official Mikhail Mizintsev said Saturday.
"Nationalist battalions have been quartered at the Foreign Language Institute and a registry office in Bakhmut in the Donetsk People's Republic, with armored vehicles, mortars, and multiple rocket launchers stationed on the grounds," Mizintsev explained.
"Entrances have been mined, but the locals have not been informed on purpose," he told a regular news briefing.
The usage of unmarked booby-traps is a violation of international humanitarian law, as it is prohibited in all circumstances to use any booby-trap designed to cause injury or unnecessary suffering.
Kiev's forces also deployed heavy weapons and munitions in the town of Kostiantynivka to residential high-rises and pulled howitzers and multiple rocket launchers to a nursery school, the Russian official noted.
Local residents have been prohibited from leaving their homes, allegedly for the sake of their own safety, Mizintsev added.
Ukrainian artillery units in the town of Slovyansk, on the other hand, fired at residential areas on Thursday, he continued. Additionally, a woman was killed and a dozen others were wounded as a result of the Ukrainian actions.
Mizintsev said Ukrainian media took photographs of the aftermath to blame it on Russia’s "indiscriminate attack." He argued that their prompt arrival at the scene proved it a false-flag operation.
The Ukrainian attacks come the same day that Kiev scored major losses on the eastern front, with the Russian armed forces and the allied LPR forces taking the city of Lysychansk, granting Moscow and its allies, the Lugansk People's Republic, full control of the strategic city.
As they were leaving the city, the Ukrainian militants who had just lost their last stronghold in the Lugansk People's Republic blew up and destroyed some of the important administrative buildings, including the mayor's office, a Sputnik correspondent reported from the scene.
Having control of the LPR allows Moscow and its allied LPR forces to push deeper into the Donbass and control more of the region.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov told reporters that three battalions stationed near Lysychansk lost over 50% of their troops in one day of combat.
