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Military operation in Ukraine

More than 10 countries asked Russia to help with evacuating people from Ukraine — ministry

Local population is also seeking help, Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev said

MOSCOW, March 2. /TASS/. More than 10 countries, including the UK, France, Japan and others have asked Russia for help with evacuating their citizens from Ukraine, Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev, head of the Russian National Center for Defense Management, said at a news conference.

"To date, requests for help with evacuating their citizens have been sent to the Russian Federation from various international organizations, including the specialized agencies of the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe; foreign countries such as Belgium, Great Britain, Ghana, Greece, India, Indonesia, Italy, China, Poland, France, Switzerland, Japan and a number of others," he said at the news conference organized by the Interagency Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Relief.

Local population is also seeking help, the general said.

"As of today, the armed forces of the Russian Federation have already ensured the safe evacuation of specialized UN agencies from Kiev, as well as employees of the Greek Embassy from Mariupol," Mizintsev said. The day before, the OSCE staff was safely evacuated from Donetsk to the city of Rostov-on-Don, he said.

On February 24 Putin announced a special military operation in response to a request for help by the heads of the Donbass republics. He stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories, but aims to demilitarize and denazify the country. The Russian Defense Ministry said that Russian troops are not targeting Ukrainian cities, but are incapacitating Ukrainian military infrastructure, therefore there are no threats to the civilian population.

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Military operation in Ukraine

Military operation in Ukraine

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