MOSCOW, February 24. /TASS/. Denazification means that Ukraine should be liberated from neo-Nazis, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier 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 the people who had been suffering from abuse and genocide by the Kiev regime.

"Ideally, Ukraine should be liberated, cleaned from neo-Nazis, from people sharing pro-Nazi sentiment and ideas," Peskov pointed out, when asked to explain remarks about the need to denazify Ukraine.

Peskov also clarified that the demilitarization of Ukraine meant "the need to cancel out the military capabilities that have significantly grown recently, particularly because of other countries’ activities." When asked to specify if it was going to include the elimination of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the Kremlin Spokesman said: "I have already answered this question."

At the same time, Peskov declined to comment on whether efforts to denazify Ukraine would lead to a change of government in the country. "I won’t comment on that, I won’t be able to answer this question at the moment," he said.

Peskov also declined to say if Moscow believed that Ukraine’s president and other senior officials shared pro-Nazi ideas. "I will refrain from further clarification," the Russian presidential spokesman said.