Ukrainian law enforcement officer in KharkivMOSCOW, Mar 6Ukrainian nationalists, who captured about 5,000 foreigners in different cities as a «human shield», thereby committed the largest such act of terrorism in history, Sergey Goncharov, honorary president of the international association of veterans of the Alfa anti-terror unit, told RIA Novosti. According to the National Center Defense Administration (a structure of the Russian Ministry of Defense), militants of nationalist battalions in Kharkov, Sumy and other cities are holding about five thousand foreigners hostage. Among them are students from India, citizens of Jordan, Egypt, Vietnam, Tanzania, and other countries. expert, in addition to Russia's calls to the world community to force Kyiv to treat civilians humanely in the area of the special operation, it is very important that the countries whose citizens are being held by Ukrainian nationalists be active here. «Russia is doing everything to help civilians — we are creating humanitarian corridors, we give buses for people who decide to leave the cities along these corridors, and so on. But let these countries put pressure on these Nazi scumbags, on [Vladimir] Zelensky, so that he gives the order to release their citizens,» the agency's interlocutor added.
The authorities of Mariupol announced the postponement of the evacuation of the populationRussia launched a military operation in Ukraine early in the morning on February 24. President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to abuse and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years.» To this end, according to him, it is planned to carry out «demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine» bloody crimes against civilians» of Donbass. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces strike only at military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops, nothing threatens the civilian population. With the support of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the DPR and LPR groups are developing an offensive. But there is no question of the occupation of Ukraine, the President of Russia emphasized. On March 5, more than 2,000 objects were hit, 82 aircraft, 708 tanks and other armored vehicles were destroyed, and so on. The territory around the Chernobyl (mothballed) and Zaporozhye (operating) nuclear power plants was taken under control. Eight years later, the North Crimean Canal was unblocked, work is underway to restore water supply to the Crimea. The offensive is going on in several directions, Kyiv is blocked from the west. A detailed map of the regions of Ukraine in which the Russian military operates, however, has not yet been officially published. The RF Armed Forces achieved air supremacy over the whole of Ukraine. According to the RF Ministry of Defense, as of March 2, 498 Russian servicemen were killed and 1,597 wounded during the operation. Among the Ukrainian side, according to the Russian military department, the losses are many times higher: more than 2870 killed and about 3700 wounded. The Ministry of Defense reports a number of cases of voluntary laying down of arms by Ukrainian troops — they are guaranteed safety and return to their families. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian security forces are deploying multiple rocket launchers right in the residential areas of Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. Putin called it a terrorist tactic.
