The flow of cars at the exit from KievMOSCOW, February 24About 100 thousand people left their homes in Ukraine, several thousand more left the country against the backdrop of a special operation by the Russian Federation to demilitarize Ukraine, Agence France-Presse reports citing a UNHCR representative. «We believe that about 100 thousand people have already left their homes, and possibly , are internally displaced persons, and several thousand people have crossed international borders,» UNHCR spokesman Shabia Mantou said, without specifying in which direction they crossed the border. On Thursday morning, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he had decided on a special military operation against Ukraine. In a televised address to the Russians, he said that the circumstances «require decisive and immediate action from us, the people's republics of Donbass turned to Russia with a request for help.» According to the Russian leader, all responsibility for the bloodshed will be on the conscience of the ruling regime in Ukraine. He urged the Ukrainian military not to follow the criminal orders of the Ukrainian authorities, lay down their arms and go home. Later, the Russian Defense Ministry stressed that the Russian Armed Forces do not launch any missile, air or artillery strikes on the cities of Ukraine: military infrastructure, air defense facilities are disabled by high-precision weapons , military airfields and aviation. The ministry assured that the civilian population is not in danger. About two hours later, the Ministry of Defense added that Ukrainian border guards «do not offer any resistance», Ukrainian air defense systems have been suppressed, and the military infrastructure of military air bases has been disabled. The military department denied the information of foreign media about the alleged downing of a Russian plane over Ukraine in the military department.
