Orthodox Christians will soon celebrate Easter, on Sunday, April 24. Russia’s Defense Ministry has information that Ukrainian authorities are planning to carry out a “terrible” provocation on the holy day, and is appealing to Western governments, the UN, and the OSCE to prevent it from taking place, as was announced by the Head of the National Defense Control Center, Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev.
“We are warning countries of the ‘Civilized West’ led by the US ahead of time that the Russian Federation has an operational base of evidence about terrible crimes planned by the Kiev regime,” Mizintsev said in a briefing today, on April 18.
Kiev, according to the General, plans to shell churches using mortars in a number of regions of Ukraine, including Zaporozhye, Nikolaev, Odessa, Sumy, and Kharkov on Easter night, and to blame Russia for the massacre of civilians. A number of Western countries are said to be involved in the planning of the provocation, which is to be carried out by over 70 mobile groups formed among ultra-nationalist battalions in mortar-equipped vans and off-road vehicles.
“Kiev plans to gather a large number of reporters from Western news agencies to document these alleged ‘Russian atrocities’ and to immediately and cynically spin these fakes,” he said. “We call on the UN, the OSCE, the International Committee of the Red Cross and other international organizations to immediately influence the Kiev regime to prevent this inhuman provocation, which disregards all norms of morality and international humanitarian law.”
As specified, the Russian military and captured neo-Nazi militants have already provided evidence on suspected war crimes by Kiev forces against religious sites in recent weeks.
Earlier this month, a captured Aidar battalion fighter revealed that Ukrainian forces deliberately fired on the Svyatogorsk Monastery in the Donetsk region. The monastery is a major local architectural landmark and Orthodox holy site.
That was done on purpose, to “make it look like it was shelled by Russian forces.” In fact, it was the Ukrainian army who shelled the landmark, “to further inflame the conflict with Russia,” as said by the captured militant.
The monastery was shelled on the night of 12 March, damaging the shrine, a bridge connecting the complex to the city of Svyatogorsk, knocking down trees and leaving shrapnel in the monastery’s walls. Two civilians were killed.
The captured militant further revealed that Ukrainian forces have been using the tactic of disguising themselves as civilians and travelling in bank vans and ambulances with mortars hidden inside.
Ru-Main, 18.04.2022
Source: Sputnik
