WASHINGTON, April 12. /TASS/. A group of 11 Ukrainian companies filed a lawsuit against the Russian Federation with a federal court of the US capital District of Columbia for compensation for property lost in Crimea in the amount of around $35 mln, according to the electronic database of the court.

Thus, the plaintiffs asked the court to confirm the volume of compensation for the seizure of their assets by Russia after Crimea joined the Russian Federation in 2014, which the arbitration court in Switzerland had previously decided to pay to Ukrainian companies. The principal amount of compensation awarded by the Swiss arbitral tribunal totals around $34.6, the document said.

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.