KIEV, February 28. /TASS/. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has evacuated most members of its Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine from the country, the mission said in a statement.

"The Mission completed the evacuation of most International Mission members following the February 25 decision," the statement reads. According to the SMM, its Monitoring Teams in Kharkov and Kherson "remain sheltered in place, owing to ongoing fighting", and its Monitoring Teams in Lugansk and Donetsk Patrol Hubs "await withdrawal through the Russian Federation." The Chief Monitor and the Kiev Head Office senior management "remain in place in Ukraine to oversee remaining mission withdrawal," the statement added.

The OSCE Secretariat said earlier that OSCE Secretary General Helga Schmid had decided to withdraw SMM members from Ukraine. The mission was established in 2014.

On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation based on a request from the heads of the Donbass republics. The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans to occupy Ukrainian territories and the goal was to demilitarize and denazify the country. Russia’s Defense Ministry reported later that the Russian Armed Forces were not delivering strikes against Ukrainian cities. The ministry emphasized that the Ukrainian military infrastructure was being destroyed by precision weapons and there was no threat to civilians.