Moscow-Sana
The Russian Ministry of Defense announced that the Ukrainian forces suffered heavy losses of up to 90 percent of their units during the battles in the Severodonetsk region, warning of Kyiv's plans to detonate containers containing chemicals to impede the progress of the Russian forces.
Sputnik news agency quoted the ministry as saying in a statement today: "The units of the forces of the Kyiv authorities have retreated towards Lyschansk."
The ministry indicated that "Kyiv is working to detonate chemical tanks in Severodonetsk to impede the progress of Russian forces," noting that upon withdrawing from Severodonetsk, the Ukrainian army ordered the mining of containers containing more than 100 tons of chemicals such as nitric acid in a nitrogen plant.
"Kyiv uses homes, schools, kindergartens and other social infrastructure facilities for military purposes," the ministry added, noting that "in Kharkov, ultra-nationalists equipped residential sites with artillery on (astronomical) street, where residents are prohibited from leaving their apartments."
She explained that "in Slavyansk, schools and colleges were occupied by Ukrainian militants, and heavy weapons and armored vehicles were placed in a feed factory," noting that the Ukrainian army also set up an observation point in a school in the Druzkovka region, and units of Ukrainian forces were placed in the buildings, and residents were not evacuated to be used as human shields.
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