MOSCOW, May 8. /TASS/. More than 18,500 tonnes of humanitarian cargoes have already been delivered to Ukraine by the Russian side since early March, Mikhail Mizintsev, chief of Russia’s National Defense Management Center, said on Sunday.
"Since March 2, a total of 18,530.6 tonnes of humanitarian cargoes have already been delivered to Ukraine by Russia. As many as 983 humanitarian operations have been conducted, including two during the past day in Kherson region and in the Donetsk People’s Republic. As many as 95 tonnes of food products and articles of daily necessity were distributed among people," he said.
According to Mizintsev, who heads the Russian Joint Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response in Ukraine, more than 9,500 temporary accommodation centers are operating in Russian regions. He also said that some 23 tonnes of humanitarian cargoes have been raised in Russia to be dispatched to Ukraine.
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.