MOSCOW, March 10. /TASS/. Russian presidential envoy for the Middle East and African countries and Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov met with heads of diplomatic missions of Arab nations accredited in Moscow to brief them on the situation in Ukraine, the Russian foreign ministry said on Thursday.

"The meeting focused on the situation around Ukraine: the diplomats were briefed on the reasons, goals and tasks of the special military operation to ensure demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine, to protect the long-suffering people of Donbass, and to eliminate the threat to Russia’s national security coming from the Ukrainian territory," it said.

According to the ministry, special attention was paid to issues of security of civilians in Ukraine and coordination of efforts towards safe exit of foreigners and diplomats from Ukraine.

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, its goals were denazification and demilitarization of that country.