Over 23,000 people expressed their intention to be evacuated to Russia in the past 24 hours, Head of Russia’s National Defense Control Center Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev said.
“Over the past 24 hours, a decision to take shelter on the territory of the Russian Federation from the terror and arbitrariness on behalf of the nationalists (in Ukraine) was expressed by 23,127 people,” Mizintsev said.
“In all, there are now 2,619.026 million people (seeking shelter in Russia), we have their names and addresses and they come from over 2,000 residential areas located in Ukraine.”
According to Mizintsev, statements on behalf of the Kiev authorities that Ukrainian nationals are unwilling to be evacuated to Russia “are false” and they are viewed as “a cynical deceit.”
On February 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed decrees at a ceremony in the Kremlin recognizing the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR).
Putin met with DPR leader Denis Pushilin and LPR leader Leonid Pasechnik, and signed treaties with them on friendship, cooperation and mutual aid between Russia and both republics.
President Putin said in a televised address on February 24 that in response to a request from the heads of the Donbass republics, he had decided to carry out a special military operation in order to protect people “who have been suffering from abuse and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years.”
The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans to occupy Ukrainian territory.
The Russian Defense Ministry reassured earlier that Russian troops are not targeting Ukrainian cities, and are limited to surgical strikes and incapacitating Ukrainian military infrastructure, insisting that there is no threat whatsoever to the civilian population.
TASS
