MOSCOW, March 9. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin told German Chancellor Olaf Scholz about Ukrainian nationalists’ attempts at hindering safe evacuation of civilians, the Kremlin press service said on Wednesday after their telephone conversation.

"Special attention was focused on humanitarian aspects of the situation in Ukraine and the Donbass republics. The Russian president informed the German chancellor about measures to organize humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians from the areas of combat operations and about the attempts of militants from nationalist units at hindering safe evacuation of people," it said.

In the context of the development of the situation around the special military operation to protect Donbass, Putin and Scholz discussed "options for political and diplomatic efforts, in particular, the results of the third round of talks between the Russian delegation and representative of Kiev authorities," The Kremlin said, adding that the leaders agreed to continue contacts at various levels.

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.

The first round of Russian-Ukrainian talks was held in Belarus’ Gomel region on February 28. The talks lasted for five hours. The second round of talks was held on March 3 in Belarus. The delegations met for the third round of talks on March 7, also in Belarus. The talks yielded no significant results and both parties admitted it. Nevertheless, they expressed readiness to continue talks and noted some progress on the topic of humanitarian corridors. Neither the date nor the venue of the next round have been announced. However, according to Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the international committee of the Russian State Duma (lower parliament house), it will be organized in Belarus in the near future.