MOSCOW, March 15. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin informed King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain about the reasons and goals of Russia’s special operation in Ukraine, the Kremlin press service said on Tuesday after their telephone conversation.

"Vladimir Putin told [the King of Bahrain] about the reasons and goals of the special military operation to defend Donbass, about the measures to protect the civilian population, and about Russia’s efforts at the talks with Ukrainian representatives," it said.

The Russian president and the King of Bahrain agreed to continue personal contacts.

On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in response to a request for help by the heads of the Donbass republics. He stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories, but aimed to demilitarize and denazify the country.

The Russian-Ukrainian talks started on February 28. On March 10, Russian and Ukrainian Foreign Ministers, Sergey Lavrov and Dmitry Kuleba met on the sidelines of a diplomatic forum in Turkey’s Antalya. Apart from that, according to the Russian president, the sides have had a series of talks in the video format. The Russian delegation to the talks, both on-and offline, is led by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky.