MOSCOW, March 10. /TASS/. More than 7,000 foreigners from 21 countries are held hostage by Ukrainian neo-Nazis, chief of the Russian National Defense Management Center Mikhail Mizintsev said on Thursday.

"More than 7,000 citizens of 21 foreign countries are still being held hostage by Ukrainian neo-Nazis," he said.

According to the official, those countries have already issued formal applications to Russia's inter-agency coordination center. Regretfully, the Ukrainian side practically ignores official and unofficial requests from international partners, he added.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address on February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in order to protect people "who have been suffering from abuse and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years." The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories.

The Russian Defense Ministry reassured that Russian troops are not targeting Ukrainian cities, but are limited to surgically striking and incapacitating Ukrainian military infrastructure. There are no threats whatsoever to the civilian population.