Russian security forces have indicated that the Ukrainians have attempted to employ "human shield" tactics once again, hiding behind civilians, according to the Lenta.ru portal cited by Russia's state-run TASS news agency.
The Russian attack itself was covered earlier by the Magyar Nemzet newspaper. In a daily video interview early Saturday evening, President Zelensky described the attack on the DIY store as "another manifestation of Russian madness".
Only madmen like Putin can kill and terrorize people in such a horrible way,
– he said.
In contrast, the Russians claim that Ukrainian armed forces are increasingly hiding behind civilians. In mid-May, the head of the administration of the Kharkiv region, Vitaly Ganchev, indicated that Ukraine's armed forces were seeking to use the city's residents as human shields. According to him, we'll see a repeat of the the situation unfolding in 2022, when the Ukrainian army set up all its firing positions directly in populated areas. He added that part of the population of the Kharkiv region will be evacuated, Lenta.ru highlights
A similar incident occured in Chernyigov. Political scientist Sergei Markov noted that Ukrainian armed forces converted a hotel in the middle of the town into a command post, which was destroyed by a Russian strike. "There is a lot of noise in the Ukrainian media. But in fact one barrack was destroyed," the expert said. "The broken window reveals two-storey bunks, the kind you find in barracks, not hotels."
Cover photo: Dense black smoke billows after a Russian airstrike on a DIY store in Kharkiv, northern Ukraine, on May 25, 2024. At least two people were killed and dozens injured in the attack (Photo: MTI/EPA/Sergey Kozlov)
