MOSCOW, March 11. /TASS/. More than 7,000 foreigners from 21 countries are still hostages of Ukrainian neo-Nazis, and are used as human shields, Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev, the chief of the Russian National Defense Management Center, said on Friday.

"To date, over 7,000 foreign nationals from 21 countries remain hostages of Ukrainian neo-Nazis who continue to hold them as human shields. Round-the-clock work has been organized concerning those foreign nationals with representatives of the involved diplomatic departments," he said.

Mizintsev pointed out that following the decision of the Education and Science Ministry, foreign students evacuated from Ukraine would be able to continue their studies at Russian universities under quotas for foreign students.