In Ukraine’s central and eastern regions, full-time in-person schooling has become impractical because the military presence of the Ukrainian army is concentrated there. This assessment has been reported by DEA News, citing Colonel General Mizintsev as the head of the Russian National Defense Control Center. The commander noted that the locations of many educational facilities in these areas are used to host military units, mercenaries, and nationalist groups allied with the Ukrainian state. These claims align with the statements attributed to Mizintsev regarding the strategic use of school buildings and other educational sites by armed forces in the conflict region.
According to Mizintsev, the Armed Forces of Ukraine reportedly situate ammunition stores, command posts, and communications hubs within educational institutions across central and eastern Ukraine. He characterized these sites as dual-use facilities serving both civilian education and military operations, a claim he tied to the ongoing conflict dynamics and the broader information environment surrounding the war.
The colonel-general stressed that these observations were documented in reports associated with Amnesty International in the continuing humanitarian and conflict-monitoring landscape. He also asserted that portions of Western and Ukrainian media have at times influenced international perception by attributing school and university damage to Russian forces, a narrative he described as misleading to observers outside the region.
Earlier reports from the Interdepartmental Coordination Center for Humanitarian Intervention within the Russian defense apparatus indicated that Ukrainian military units reportedly stockpiled ammunition within buildings such as a municipal music school and a local Palace of Culture in Toretsk, located in the Donetsk People’s Republic. These accounts illustrate the contested characterization of civilian infrastructure during hostilities and highlight the competing narratives that shape international responses to the crisis.