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Radicals holding hostage over 1,500 foreign citizens in Ukraine — Russian Defense Ministry

As many as 1,140 citizens of India, Tanzania, China, Ghana, Jordan, Egypt, Pakistan, Tunisia, Zambia, Kazakhstan and Serbia are remaining in Sumy, Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev informed

MOSCOW, March 7. /TASS/. Ukrainian radicals continue holding over 1,500 foreign nationals hostage in Ukraine, Chief of Russia’s National Defense Control Center Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev said on Monday.

"Kiev radicals keep holding hostage over 1,500 (1,634) foreigners as a human shield," he said.

As the Russian general specified, in Kharkov, there are 257 citizens of Jordan, Egypt, Vietnam and Indonesia. As many as 1,140 citizens of India, Tanzania, China, Ghana, Jordan, Egypt, Pakistan, Tunisia, Zambia, Kazakhstan and Serbia are remaining in Sumy. In Mariupol, there are 70 citizens of Turkey and 18 citizens of Kazakhstan. There are also 15 Egyptian citizens in Kherson, seven Indonesian nationals in Odessa, seven citizens of the Republic of Togo in Kiev, seven citizens of the UK and six Belarusian citizens in Kiev. In Chernigov, 12 Pakistani citizens and nine Indonesian nationals are being held hostage, the general said.

"We are working round the clock with the corresponding diplomatic agencies of the above-mentioned states with regard to the fate of these foreign citizens," he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced 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 Ukraine 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 and the operation was aimed at demilitarizing and denazifying Ukraine.

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