MOSCOW, March 3. /TASS/. Western countries ramped up sending the personnel of private military companies to the areas of combat operations in Ukraine, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Major-General Igor Konashenkov said on Thursday.
"We draw attention to the fact that amid the encirclement and elimination of Ukrainian nationalists by the Russian Armed Forces, Western countries have ramped up sending contract-enlisted personnel of private military companies to the areas of combat operations," the spokesman said.
The foreign mercenaries who have arrived in Ukraine are carrying out subversive acts and raids against Russian convoys of military hardware and logistics supplies and aircraft that are shielding the troops, he said.
"It is them who skip getting into the snapshots of phones of alleged local residents in propaganda videos spread by Ukrainian special services on social networks," the general stressed.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address on the morning of 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 and the operation was aimed at demilitarizing and denazifying Ukraine.
When clarifying the developments unfolding, 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.