MOSCOW, April 11. /TASS/. Russian servicemen have cleared mines from a kindergarten in the Kherson Region where previously a Marine unit of Ukraine’s armed forces had been stationed, the press service of the Russian Defense Ministry reported on Monday.

"Earlier, the Russian servicemen conducted mine sweeping and the removal of munitions and weapons from a kindergarten in one of the communities in the Kherson Region which was used by the Ukrainian army as a stronghold. A command center was located in the building of a functioning kindergarten in the Kherson Region. A Marine unit of the Ukrainian army which occupied half of the building, refitted the children’s preschool facility as a military facility in order to have the opportunity to be practically shielded by children," the statement said.

The press service noted that this wasn’t the first kindergarten in the region occupied by the Ukrainian servicemen.

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, noting that the operation was aimed at the denazification and demilitarization of Ukraine. Russia’s Defense Ministry reported later that Russian troops were not delivering strikes against Ukrainian cities. It emphasized that Ukrainian military infrastructure was being destroyed by precision weapons.