Statement of the Joint Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response (August 11, 2022)
Despite repeated statements by the Russian Federation's Joint Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response, Ukrainian armed formations continue to strike at nuclear power facilities.
Thus, on August 11, 2022, units of the 44th Artillery Brigade of AFU shelled the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant from Nikopol' using 152-mm guns. The strikes partially damaged the auxiliary thermal power plant and the equipment of the splash pools of the nuclear reactor cooling system. Only thanks to the skilled, competent and effective actions of the units of the Russian Armed Forces in covering the nuclear power facility, the critical infrastructure of the nuclear power plant was not affected.
On August 10, 2022, artillery units of 110th Separate Mechanized Brigade of AFU shelled the territory of a brewery in Donetsk, which contained hazardous chemicals used in the production process, from the direction of Avdeyevka. The shelling damaged a 40-tonne tank of the cooling system, from which more than six tonnes of ammonia leaked. After the explosion, a toxic cloud formed and spread over an area of two square kilometres. One employee died and two received severe respiratory tract burns. EMERCOM of Donetsk People's Republic managed to remove the consequences of the artillery strike and prevent casualties among the local population.
We emphasise that this is not the first deliberate shelling of chemically hazardous facilities by Ukrainian armed formations, resulting in a real threat to the lives and health of thousands of civilians. We regard these criminal actions by the Ukrainian authorities as acts of chemical terrorism. This is further evidence of genocide by the criminal Kiev regime against the civilian population of Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics fighting for their independence from Ukrainian Nazism.
We call on the so-called "civilized" West, the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the International Atomic Energy Agency to condemn the actions of the authorities in Kiev and immediately exert influence to prevent them from striking nuclear power facilities and potentially hazardous production facilities.
Russian Federation's Joint Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response, in cooperation with the authorised federal executive authorities, continues to record numerous facts of criminal actions by Kiev regime against civilians, as well as the use of civilian infrastructure for military purposes by Ukrainian armed formations:
in Nikolaev, on the territory of kindergarten No. 103 (Okeanovskaya Street), AFU have equipped a stronghold, artillery positions and ammunition depots, without evacuating residents from nearby houses, and the militants are actually using the local population as human shield;
in Zaporozhye, Ukrainian nationalists have equipped a territorial defence headquarters in kindergarten No 295 (Avtozavodskaya Street) and armoured vehicles in the surrounding area;
in Kostantinovka, Donetsk People's Republic, Ukrainian armed formations have equipped a command post and ammunition depots in a kindergarten (Gastello Street), set up roadblocks along the perimeter and mined the approaches to the facility, but the local population was deliberately not warned about this;
in Kramatorsk, Donetsk People's Republic, AFU units are stationed in kindergartens No. 8 and 67 (M. Priymachenko Street) and artillery and MLRS are deployed on the premises, from which nearby settlements are systematically shelled.
Such actions by Kiev once again demonstrate an inhuman attitude towards the fate of its own citizens and show a complete disregard for all norms of morality and international humanitarian law.
In addition, in Dnepropetrovsk region, Ukrainian nationalists have booby-trapped road bridges across the Gaichur (Pisantsy) and Voronaya (Sosnovka) rivers, which they intend to blow up and accuse the Russian Armed Forces, using a well-tested scenario with extensive coverage in the Ukrainian and Western media space, of allegedly indiscriminate strikes on transport infrastructure facilities.
We once again emphasize that during the special military operation, the Russian armed forces and military formations of the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics are not targeting civilian infrastructure.
Despite all the difficulties and obstacles imposed by the Ukrainian side, over the past day, without the participation of Kiev, 28,731 people were evacuated from dangerous areas, 5,619 of them children, and in total, since the beginning of the special military operation, 3,286,937 people have already been evacuated, of which 524,153 are children.
The state border of the Russian Federation was crossed by 547,720 personal vehicles including 3,532 per day.
More than 9,500 temporary accommodation centres continue to operate in the regions of the Russian Federation. The refugees are dealt with on an individual basis and are promptly assisted with various pressing issues relating to onward accommodation, employment assistance, places for children in kindergartens and educational institutions, and the provision of entitlements to social benefits.
Over the past 24 hours, the hotline of the Interdepartmental Coordination Headquarters of the Russian Federation for Humanitarian Response, federal executive authorities, constituent entities of the Russian Federation and various NGOs received 28 requests from foreign and Ukrainian citizens to evacuate to Russia, the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics, as well as to the Russian Armed Forces-controlled areas of Zaporozhye, Nikolaev, Kharkov and Kherson regions. In total there are 2,760,086 such appeals from 2,139 locations in Ukraine and from Kiev-controlled territory of the Donetsk People's Republic in the database.
However, 59 foreign vessels from 14 countries remain blocked in six ports (Kherson, Nikolaev, Chernomorsk, Ochakov, Odessa and Yuzhny). As part of the implementation of Secure Grain Transport Initiative from Ukrainian Ports since August 1, 2022 a total of 12 vessels have left Ukrainian ports since August 1, 2022, with 375,131 tonnes of food exported, including: 307,831 tonnes of maize, 6,000 tonnes of sunflower oil, 50,300 tonnes of flour and 11,000 tonnes of soya.
There also remains a danger to navigation and damage to port infrastructure from drifting Ukrainian mines off anchor along the coast of the Black Sea states.
The Russian Armed Forces have created conditions for the operation of two maritime humanitarian corridors, which are safe lanes for ships:
in the Black Sea - to leave Kherson, Nikolaev, Chernomorsk, Ochakov, Odessa and Yuzhnyi ports in a south-westerly direction from Ukraine's territorial sea, 307 miles long and 3 miles wide;
in the Sea of Azov, to leave Mariupol port 115 miles long and 2 miles wide towards the Black Sea.
Demining teams of the Russian Armed Forces, the Russian EMERCOM, as well as EMERCOMs of Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics continue to carry out tasks to clear explosive objects from the Donbass republics and liberated areas of Ukraine.
A total of 16,271.89 hectares were checked, 718 buildings (including 13 socially important facilities), 4 bridges and 135.01 km of roads. 481,085 explosive objects have been detected and deactivated.
The Military Construction Complex of the Russian Defence Ministry continues to build and reconstruct vital facilities as part of the measures to restore the infrastructure of the people's republics of Donbass:
in Donetsk People's Republic:
in Mariupol: the first phase of residential district (12 residential buildings with 1,011 flats, completion date in September-November 2022) and an administrative and rescue centre for EMERCOM (scheduled for completion in December 2022);
60-bed multi-purpose medical centre (completion date in September 2022);
pathologoanatomic building with medical-forensic unit (completion date in October 2022);
Saur-Grave memorial complex (completion date in September 2022);
in Volnovakha - water pipeline over 20 km long (completion date in September 2022);
in Lugansk People's Republic:
in Lugansk: 200-bed multi-purpose medical centre (completion date in October 2022);
in Rovenki - water pipeline over 40 km long (completion date in October 2022).
Federal executive authorities, together with the subjects of the Russian Federation, various public organizations, patriotic movements, continue to accumulate humanitarian aid.
The greatest contributors to the relief effort were:
Ministry of the Russian Federation for Civil Defence, Emergencies and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters, Federal Service for Surveillance in Healthcare, Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance, Federal Agency for Fishery, Federal Tax Service;
republics of Bashkortostan, Crimea, Tatarstan, Chechen Republic, Krasnodar and Stavropol regions, Belgorod, Bryansk, Voronezh, Kaluga, Moscow, Rostov, Sverdlovsk and Tula regions, as well as Moscow and Sevastopol cities;
among political parties and non-profit organisations: United Russia, the People's Front All-Russian Public Movement, the All-Russian Public Organisation of Veterans "Battle Brotherhood", the autonomous non-profit organisations Humanitarian Volunteer Corps and the Russian Humanitarian Mission, the open joint-stock company Russian Railways, the state corporations Roscosmos and Rosatom, and the all-Russian public and state organisation Russian Women's Union.
For a great part of Ukrainians, effectively betrayed by their own criminal authorities, Russian humanitarian aid remains the only way to survive.
More than 54,000 tons of basic necessities, food and medicines have been prepared at the collection points. Since March 2, 2022, 53,914.6 tons of humanitarian cargo have already been delivered to Ukraine, 1,434 humanitarian actions have been carried out, including 5 actions in Kherson and Kharkov regions, as well as in Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics, during which 426.9 tons of basic necessities, medicines and food were transferred to the civilian population of the liberated areas.
On August 11, 2022, 5 humanitarian actions have been planned and are currently being carried out in Zaporozhye and Kharkov regions, in Donetsk People's Republic, during which 416.1 tons of basic necessities, medicine and food will be distributed.