UNITED NATIONS, April 19. /TASS/. At least 2.5 million Ukrainians have found shelter in Russia after the state coup in 2014, Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polyansky said on Tuesday.

"Russia was faced with the consequences of the degradation of the situation in Ukraine immediately after the anti-constitutional coup in February 2014," he recalled. "As soon as the nationalist authorities demonstrated their true face when they clamped down on the Russian language and began to physically eliminate people living in the country’s east, influxes of refugees rushed to Russia to escape after the Maidan rampage."

"According to official data, at least 1.7 million people have applied for Russian citizenship, a refugee status or for temporary shelter in our country since 2014. But when the Ukrainian side intensified shelling of Donbass ahead of Russia’s special military operation, this influx increased dramatically to reach 863,000 people," he said, adding that after the state coup in Ukraine, at least 2.5 million Ukrainian have found shelter in Russia.

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.