“The operation is taking such a long time, primarily because the Russian military involved in the operation are ordered to categorically avoid attacks and strikes on civilian infrastructure.
Attacks are subject only to military facilities, the accumulation of equipment and manpower.
That is why we act differently compared to the Ukrainian army and neo-Nazi battalions that use civilians as human shields,” he said.
Lavrov stressed that the Ukrainian side is equipping firing positions in residential buildings and on the territory of social facilities, hiding behind the backs of ordinary people.
“If you were there, you saw (or heard) that these “battalions” are placing heavy weapons in residential areas, near schools, hospitals, kindergartens.
They regularly shell Donetsk.
The civilian population is suffering from this,” the minister said.
Earlier, the head of the Russian National Defense Control Center, Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, said that Ukrainian military and foreign mercenaries were stationed in a kindergarten and school in the village of Bakhmut in the DPR.