In the courtyard of a house in the Left Bank district of Mariupol. Archival photoMOSCOW, Apr 12Ukrainian nationalists are still holding hostage over 6,200 foreigners from 11 countries as human shields, said the head of the Interdepartmental Coordination Headquarters of the Russian Federation for Humanitarian Response in Ukraine — Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, head of the National Defense Control Center of the Russian Federation. «Ukrainian nationalists continue to hold 6,253 foreign citizens from 11 states hostage as a human shield,» Mizintsev said. Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24. 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 Russian Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces strike only at military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops and , on March 25, completed the main tasks of the first stage — significantly reduced the combat potential of Ukraine. The main goal in the Russian military department was called the liberation of Donbass.
