20.02.2022, Moscow.
The decision to evacuate civilians from the zone of probable damage in Donbass is the right one, especially taking the possible usage of chemical weapons by Ukraine into account, military expert and editor of the magazine Arsenal of the Fatherland Aleksey Leonkov said in a commentary for Rossa Primavera News Agency on February 20.
According to the expert, Ukraine, the UK and the US “act outside the legal framework,” and they don’t care about the law.
“The use of chemical weapons is quite possible. Against civilians or against the military is an open question,” the expert noted.
Leonkov explained that the army’s chemical protection kits are mostly used to protect against chemical attacks. “The Russian army has, for example, entire units of troops of radiation, chemical, biological protection,” the expert explained.
He noted that the defenders of Donbass probably have such units as well. Perhaps they are part of the structures of civil defense and emergency units.
“But I think that it is unrealistic to distribute kits to the entire population, even if they were in sufficient quantity. Therefore, the competent solution is to take the population out of the area of probable damage,” summarized Leonkov.
On February 17, the situation at the contact line in Donbass escalated sharply. According to the authorities of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), this is the most intense shelling by Ukraine in recent times. Heavy weapons are being used, among other things.
On February 18, the heads of the republics, Leonid Pasechnik and Denis Pushilin, announced the start of the evacuation of the region’s residents to Russia. About 36,000 people were transported to the Rostov Region overnight.
However, there are plans to evacuate even more people. Earlier, the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the DPR said that about 700,000 people could be evacuated only from the Donetsk People’s Republic.
The acting head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia Aleksandr Chupriyan said that at least 26 of the 85 regions of Russia are ready to accommodate refugees. More than 280 temporary accommodation centres are ready to receive people.
On February 19, general mobilization was announced in the LPR and DPR.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
