KIEV, February 26. /TASS/. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said on Saturday Turkish President Tayyip Ergogan had agreed to bar Russian warships from accessing the Black Sea via Turkish straits, the Bosporus and the Dardanelles.

"[I] thanked our friend Erdogan for unwavering support of our independence, territorial integrity. We agreed that a ban on the passage of Russian warships to the Black Sea was of extreme importance today. This was done," Zelensky said in a video address to Ukrainians, posed on his Telegram channel.

Earlier, Zelensky released a similar statement on Twitter. Meanwhile, Turkey’s Cumhuriyet newspaper reported, citing a source in the Turkish government, that no restrictions on the passage of Russian warships via the Bosporus and the Dardanelles have yet been introduced.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address on February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in order to protect people "who have been suffering from abuse and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years." The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories. Its objectives are demilitarization and denazification of the country.