New Delhi, Mar 8 (IANS): The Ukrainian military on Tuesday claimed that Russian forces were increasingly resorting to looting and violatiing the rules of international humanitarian law on military conflict in regions currently under siege.

In its latest update on the situation, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said the robberies were reported in the Kharkiv, Sumy, Chernihiv and Kiev regions, UNIAN reported.

Besides the looting, the Russian forces were also resorting to "violent actions against local residents, the seizure of civilian premises, use of agricultural hangars for parking military equipment, arrangement of firing positions in densely populated areas and civilian facilities", it said.

In the regions of Kherson and Mykolaiv, the Russians were reportedly using psychological warfare to influence the local residents.

"According to the available information, there are 10 tactical groups of psychological combatants to conduct propaganda work," it said, adding that Russian forces were also threatening the population of the northern part of Crimea.