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Military operation in Ukraine

Russia conducting 'surgical operation' in Ukraine to avoid harming civilians — TASS chief

Andrey Kondrashov said the Russian forces avoid causing completely unjustified civilian casualties

TASS General Director Andrey Kondrashov Yevgeny Messman/TASS

TASS General Director Andrey Kondrashov

© Yevgeny Messman/TASS

SYKTYVKAR, August 21. /TASS/. Russia is conducting a "surgical operation" as part of its special military operation to avoid harming civilians and civilian infrastructure, TASS Director General Andrey Kondrashov told reporters in Syktyvkar during the CIS International Film Festival currently taking place in the Russian northeastern Komi Region.

"When it comes to the special military operation, we are conducting a surgical operation, not a military one. We are afraid of damaging infrastructure used exclusively by civilians, not the military, and we are also afraid - God forbid - of causing completely unjustified civilian casualties. We will continue to act this way up to a certain limit. For those who are currently preparing to fight us, however, the conversation will be entirely different," Kondrashov noted.

He presented the Airport documentary film, which he directed, at the CIS International Film Festival in Syktyvkar. The film provides a detailed account of the first battle for the survival of the Donbass, drawing on archival footage and eyewitness accounts of the events. In particular, it features Donetsk Airport press secretary Dmitry Kosinov, Donetsk physician Andrey Boryak, DPR Hero and Russian presidential envoy in the Ural Federal District Artyom Zhoga, as well as residents of Donetsk.

In 2014, the Prokofiev Donetsk Airport became one of the hotbeds in the conflict between Ukrainian forces and Donbass militias. On May 26, 2014, the last flight departed from the airport, bound for Kiev. Fighting then broke out on the airport grounds and continued until mid-January 2015. The film is available to watch for free on the Russian Smotrim media platform.

The CIS International Film Festival is being held in Komi for the first time on August 17-21. Nearly 30 films from Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan were screened. As part of the festival program, viewers were offered feature-length and short films, both fiction and documentaries, as well as cultural and educational business programs.

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Military operation in Ukraine

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