Russia claims that the “special military operation” in Ukraine is going “according to plan”

Latest news on the war between Russia and Ukraine

Aug. 24 () –

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Wednesday that the “special military operation” in eastern Ukraine announced last February by Russian President Vladimir Putin is going “according to plan.”

On Ukraine’s Independence Day, a symbolic date for kyiv for the six-month anniversary since war was declared, the head of the Russian Defense portfolio explained that the Russian Army is carrying out “systematic work in the territories released to establish a peaceful life.

“Ukrainian military units are using scorched earth tactics, blatantly violating international norms and acting like terrorists,” he said, adding that they are using the population as a “human shield,” according to the TASS news agency.

In this way, Shoigu stressed that, since Ukraine refused to comply with the Minsk agreements, there was “a real threat” to the residents of the Donbas region, for which the “special military operation” was “necessary”. in Ukraine.

Likewise, the Russian Defense Minister has assured that the slowdown in actions on the Ukrainian ground is a “conscious” decision, since “it is done deliberately to avoid civilian casualties”, as Kommersant has collected.

“Today a tough war of sanctions and information has been unleashed against Russia. The conflict in Ukraine has become one more pretext. The objective of the United States and its accomplices is the strategic exhaustion of Russia to eliminate competition and warn other states who pursue an independent foreign policy,” he concluded.

INDEPENDENCE DAY

These statements come on a very symbolic day for Ukraine. The Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelenski, has attended this Wednesday with his wife the tribute in kyiv to the ‘Celestial Hundred’, which remembers the victims of the Maidan.

The acting head of the Ukrainian Security Service, Vasil Maliuk, has stressed that, “with weapons in hand”, they will defend “what each Ukrainian family has been building for decades”. “The main thing is that we will defend the future of the country,” he added, according to the Ukrinform news agency.

In the same terms, the mayor of kyiv, Vitali Klichko, has spoken on his official Facebook profile, saying that kyiv “is fighting bravely for its land and its will.” “We have shown that we are not afraid and that we will not give up,” he said.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has specified, according to a statement from the Presidency, that starting this Wednesday a minute of silence will be held “every day” to honor the victims of Russian aggression against Ukraine.

The initiative will be carried out both in the media and in the cabinet, as well as in regional administrations and foreign diplomatic institutions of Ukraine abroad.