By Ateet Sharma

New Delhi, April 23: Russia said on Saturday that military engineers of its armed forces carried out extensive humanitarian demining of settlements in the Kharkiv region using unexploded ordnance from the Ukrainian armed forces.

The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that its sapper units were carrying out “targeted visits at the request of local residents” to clear residential areas, family plots and agricultural land, following which technical reconnaissance was carried out on site to assess the situation and the demining group proceeded. to clear the area of ​​explosive objects.

“Discovered ammunition, if it is possible to transport it, is loaded into vehicles specially equipped for safe transport with a sand floor and armored plates. Explosive objects are transported to the dump, placed in a trench and detonated using TNT charges,” the ministry said.

The Russian army also took control of the arsenal of the Ukrainian Armed Forces with an area of ​​several hundred hectares in the same region.

“The Ukrainian Armed Forces have abandoned the arsenal with warehouses containing thousands of tons of ammunition, including cannon artillery, mortars, multiple rocket launchers, air defense weapons and small arms,” ​​he said. said the Russian army.

He said that in addition to Soviet-made ammunition, Western-made mines and shells were also stored in the arsenal hangars.

In Kherson, southern Ukraine, the Russians again alleged that Ukrainian nationalist units were using a local secondary school, located near residential buildings, as a bunker.

“Judging by the positions prepared in advance – trenches and firing points – and the number of various weapons, the nationalists organized a whole fortified area in the children’s educational institution. Destroyed military equipment burned stayed in the school yard and on the sports field,” the Russian military said after “liberating” the settlement.

“In the basement of the school, the nationalists equipped places for recreation, cooking and a medical center. There was also a room for making improvised explosive devices. Dozens of grenades and other explosive objects with self-tapping screws and nails were first examined by Russian military engineers, after which the dangerous findings were removed and destroyed,” he added.

The Russians said a large amount of arms and ammunition were also found in the school building which had been left behind by Ukrainian forces who had hastily left their positions.

“They also considered the options for their withdrawal in advance. Several underground passages led from the school to nearby homes of civilians,” the Russian military said.

He added that all found ammunition and captured weapons were removed by Russian servicemen and later transferred to people’s militia units of Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics.

Meanwhile, a worried Ukraine said on Friday that the “threat of missiles and airstrikes” to civilian and military infrastructure objects on its territory from Belarus remains.

“In the direction of Mariupol, the Russian enemy continued to launch airstrikes on Mariupol and blockaded our units in the Azovstal region. The personnel of a separate group of Russian troops in the so-called “Transnistrian Republic -Moldova” also serves daily,” a statement from the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said.

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–Indian story

(553 words)

2022-04-23-19:30:07
Source: IANS