MOSCOW, March 4. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin drew attention during his telephone conversation with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to the danger emanating from Neo-Nazis in Ukraine, the Kremlin press office reported on Friday.

"It was emphasized that the basic danger was emanating from military formations of Neo-Nazis who are committing numerous war crimes, using terrorist methods and deploying strike weapons in residential areas and cynically using the civilian population as a shield," the statement reads.

As the Kremlin also pointed out, official Kiev "is not fulfilling its promises to stop this barbarity: the number of such instances has been growing in recent days."

"We are registering ever more frequently the arrival of mercenaries from third countries, in particular, from Albania and Croatia, Kosovo militants and even jihadists with the Syrian combat experience," the statement reads.

President Putin announced 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 Ukraine 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.