MOSCOW, Mar 8 The National Hockey League (NHL) has suspended the memorandum on understanding with the Kontinental Hockey League (NHL), reports journalist Frank Seravalli on his Twitter. It is noted that the NHL notified the KHL of the suspension on Monday due to the situation in Ukraine. The North American League appealed to the clubs demanding «immediately exclude any interaction with the KHL and its clubs, as well as with players' agents based in Russia.» According to the journalist, such a decision will affect the process of signing free agents from the KHL, there are no agreements with league players. The NHL has notified the KHL that it will continue to fulfill obligations under existing contracts. «We will have limited information about the contracts of players who play or have recently played in the KHL,» NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly commented. Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine early Thursday morning , 24 February. President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years.» For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out «demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine», to bring to justice all war criminals responsible for «bloody crimes against civilians» in Donbass. According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the Armed Forces strike only at the 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 talk of the occupation of Ukraine, the President of Russia emphasized.
