““Now fighting is going on in the village of Grabovskoe. Ukrainian defenders are making efforts to knock out the occupiers on Russian territory. Despite separate reports in the media space, there are currently no Russians in the neighboring village of Ryasne””, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
“Now fighting is going on in the village of Grabovskoe. Ukrainian defenders are making efforts to knock out the occupiers on Russian territory. Despite separate reports in the media space, there are currently no Russians in the neighboring village of Ryasne,” the message published on December 21 reads.
Earlier today, the Armed Forces of Ukraine confirmed the forced removal of about half a hundred Ukrainian civilians from Grabovskoye by the Russian military. According to the report, they are mostly elderly men and women, one of the women is 89 years old.
The military noted that “as a result of the rapid offensive of the enemy, the units of the Defense Forces of Ukraine withdrew from several positions in the Grabovskoye area.”
Meanwhile, Viktor Tregubov, the head of the United Forces group’s communications department, said in a comment to Suspilnyi that the actions of the Russian military do not look like an attempt at a large-scale breakthrough or a major military operation. According to him, it is a local provocation. Tregubov added that these actions do not have strategic goals and may be aimed at a political or informational attack.
The Russian side did not comment on the announcement of the removal of civilians from Sumy Oblast.
Dmytro Lubinets, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, said that he appealed to his Russian colleague Tetyana Moskalkova and the International Committee of the Red Cross due to the forced removal of civilians from Sumy Oblast by the Russian military.
The ombudsman emphasized that such actions of the Russian troops are a “gross violation of international humanitarian law.”