The Russian army entered Ukrainian Melitopol without resistance. This was announced on Saturday, February 26, by the Russian Ministry of Defense.
“On February 25, after the landing of an amphibious assault in the area of u200bu200bthe settlement of Azov (Ukraine), Russian units marched and, without meeting resistance, entered Melitopol,” the press service of the department said.
They noted that local residents greeted the military personnel passing through the city, and some “older citizens took to the streets with red flags,” clarifies “Newspaper.ru“.
Earlier, on February 25, the military personnel of Russia and Ukraine reported on the joint security of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, control over which was taken by the Russian military on February 24. They agreed with the military personnel of a separate battalion of the protection of the nuclear power plant of the National Guard of Ukraine on the joint protection of power units, a sarcophagus and a storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in order to avoid the possibility of sabotage by nationalist groups.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special operation to protect the civilian population of Donbass. After that, the Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of hitting the country’s military infrastructure and introduced martial law throughout Ukraine. He also said that Kyiv is breaking off diplomatic relations with Moscow and withdrawing its diplomats from the embassy.
The Russian Defense Ministry stressed that the army did not carry out air missile or artillery strikes on the cities of Ukraine. The civilian population of the country is not in danger. High-precision weapons destroy military infrastructure. As of February 25, 211 Ukrainian military installations, including American Javelin anti-tank missile systems and British NLAW, were disabled by high-precision weapons.
On February 21, the heads of the DPR and LPR Denis Pushilin and Leonid Pasechnik appealed to Vladimir Putin with a request to recognize the independence of the republics. The corresponding decrees were signed in the evening of the same day. In the presence of the leaders of the republics, the President of the Russian Federation also signed treaties of friendship, cooperation and assistance. The documents were ratified the next day by both the republics themselves and the Russian State Duma.
The situation in Donbass escalated on February 17, 2022. In the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, heavy shelling by Ukrainian security forces was reported, including from heavy weapons. The republics announced a general mobilization and evacuation of civilians to the territory of Russia.
Since 2014, the Kiev authorities have been conducting a military operation against the inhabitants of Donbass, who refused to recognize the results of the coup d’état and the new government in Ukraine. At the same time, Kyiv blames Moscow for the current situation. Russia has repeatedly stated that it is not a party to the conflict.
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