KIEV, March 3. /TASS/. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said on Thursday that the first batch of 16,000 foreign volunteers is coming to the country.

"Ukraine is already welcoming foreign volunteers who are coming to our country. The first of 16,000," he said in a video message posted on his Telegram channel.

Zelensky added that Ukraine is receiving more and more weapons from Western partners every day.

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.

Russia's Defense Ministry reported later that Russian troops were not delivering strikes against Ukrainian cities. It emphasized that Ukrainian military infrastructure was being destroyed by precision weapons. Civilians are not threatened, the Russian military assured.