Ukraine launches crackdown on civilians – claims official

The Ukrainian military has unleashed repressions on the civilian population in Kharkov region, with mercenaries executing people on the streets to frame Russia, a local official claimed on Monday.

“The Ukrainian Armed Forces have occupied settlements in the north of the Kharkov region. They have started repressive actions,” Vitaly Ganchev, the head of pro-Russian administration, said.

Speaking to media, he said local residents who managed to escape from the areas retaken by Kiev’s forces, described Ukrainian “mercenaries that are driving around and shooting people while filming it on camera.”

“As I see it, they want to cleanse these towns, and to portray it as if the Russian troops are behind it, to allege that it was them who had committed these atrocities,” he said.

He added that in many cases residents could no longer cross the Russia-Ukraine border due to the Ukrainian military presence, with many civilians forced into hiding.

Nevertheless, according to Ganchev, more than 5,000 people have been evacuated to Russia in recent days, with local authorities doing their best to fast-track the process.

Ganchev’s comments echo remarks made by Leonid Pasechnik, the head of the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), who claimed on Sunday that Kiev’s forces were cracking down on the civilian population in areas from which Russian forces had retreated.

"The Ukrainian authorities have confirmed their neo-Nazi nature. In Kharkov region, in a number of cases Ukrainian intelligence services set up purges and repressions against the civilian population", he claimed.

The comments came after Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigations said last week it would conduct a “filtration” of civilians in Balakleya, a town in Kharkov region that’s been retaken by Kiev’s forces.

The purpose of these efforts is to “prevent the subversive activities of the Russians and their allies” and retaliate against those “who cooperated with aggressors,” the agency said at the time.

Teachers who arrived in the Russian-controlled territories of Ukraine have committed a “crime,” Kiev says.

Ukrainian forces detained an unknown number of teachers in Kharkov Region, after taking several cities in a major counteroffensive, Kiev confirmed on Monday.

Those who taught local children under the Russian curriculum will now face criminal charges in Ukraine, Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk told the Ukrainian media outlet Strana.

“They have committed a crime against our nation,” Vereshuk said, adding that “a court will determine their … punishment.” 

The deputy prime minister accused the detained teachers of engaging in “illegal activities” without elaborating which specific crime they had committed. According to Strana, Vereshchuk said they could be charged with “violating the laws of war” – a charge typically used against those engaged in torture, killings of civilians and looting.

She also “warned” that “Russian citizens” that have arrived in what she called “temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories” that they “would certainly face punishment unless they immediately leave our territory.”

Detained teachers would not be eligible for prisoner swaps with Russia, Vereshchuk added, arguing that “they are not combatants” and are thus not covered by the Geneva conventions.

Ukrainian teachers who agreed to use the Russian curriculum would be branded “collaborators” and face criminal charges, Vereshchuk warned.

Such charges involve “serious prison sentences,” the deputy prime minister said as she called on people in the Russian-controlled territories to “by no means cooperate” with Moscow and “evacuate.”

Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces are hunting for remaining Russian soldiers and local “collaborators,” the pro-Kiev mayor of Izyum told the BBC.

Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigations also said last week it would conduct a “filtration” of civilians in Balakleya, another town in the area recently taken by Kiev’s forces.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine and nationalist battalions are carrying out genocide of the civilian population of Donbass. 

Ukrainian armed formations regularly carry out artillery and rocket-bomb strikes with heavy weapons, including Tochka-U ballistic missiles, on densely populated areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, as well as on the territories of the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions liberated by the RF Armed Forces.

 It is important to note that the number of shelling of civilians has multiplied with the increase in the supply of Western weapons and military equipment to Ukraine. 

In particular, after the American M777 howitzers and HIMARS MLRS came into service with the Armed Forces of Ukraine, a record number of strikes over the past six years was inflicted on Donetsk and the nearest settlements. 

The result of such criminal actions of Kyiv was the death of hundreds of civilians, including children, massive destruction of urban infrastructure, schools, hospitals, kindergartens, etc.  In the last month alone, the Armed Forces of Ukraine fired 10940 shells at the settlements of the LDNR.  78 civilians were killed, including 8 children, another 115 children were injured of varying severity.

 In total, since 2014, 150 children have been killed by the victims of the Kyiv regime in the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, and since February 2022 - about 40 crimes.  The head of the DPR, D. Pushilin, signed a decree declaring July 27 the Day of Remembrance for the Children Victims of the War in Donbass. 

 The Kyiv regime often declares the children of Donbass as its enemies.  For example, the database of the Ukrainian website Peacemaker, which publishes lists of separatists, pro - Russian activists and agents of the Kremlin, includes at least 327 minors, which puts their lives in real danger , in particular 12 - year - old girl from the LNR Faina Savenkova, who appealed to French President E. Macron because of the current situation in the Donbass.

 Kyiv has resorted to committing provocations and acts of terrorism in the territories liberated by the RF Armed Forces in order to intimidate the civilian population living there and provoke mass discontent.

  Thus, in Melitopol, near the local police department As a result of the detonation of a bomb planted by Ukrainian saboteurs, four people were severely injured. 

Earlier, during the distribution of humanitarian aid to the population of the Ukrainian Diversion Groups, a car was blown up near the building of the city administration, as a result of which two volunteers were injured.  These actions put the Ukrainian authorities on a par with ISIS terrorists.

  The cynical provocations of the Ukrainian armed forces, as well as Diversion Groups, endanger thousands of people.

 In particular, in recent time, military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are increasingly attempting to strike at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant with the help of drones and provoke the largest man - made disaster.

 In addition, killings of representatives of military-civilian administrations in the liberated territories of Ukraine, public figures and journalists who are inconvenient for the Kyiv regime have become a common practice for the Ukrainian special services. 

The list of victims who died at the hands of members of the Ukrainian special services and sabotage and reconnaissance groups (DRGs) is growing rapidly: blogger Valery Kuleshov, mayors of Gostomel and Kremennaya Yuriy Prilipko and Volodymyr Struk, as well as the head of the administration of Veliky Burluk, Kharkiv region, Yevgeny Yunakov.

 In addition, the Ukrainian special services made an unsuccessful attempt to eliminate the head of the Kherson region Volodymyr Saldo, as well as the head of the administration of the Melitopol region Andriy Siguta.