17.03.2022, Mariupol.
Ukrainian authorities fostered hate and fear of the Russian military in local residents, an eyewitness from Mariupol told RIA Novosti on March 17.
“They said that you were shooting people. It was scary, children were walking, crying, seeing the military, because they were used to ours, how the Ukrainian treated them,” the woman told reporters.
According to her, together with her children she was hiding in the basement for 15 days and could not come out because the Ukrainian military was “deploying tanks” and the civilians had to hide “so we wouldn’t get shot”.
“On the road there are no houses, nothing, everything was burning, corpses lying around people, military, children screaming, crying. We were walking under bullets, we barely made it to the buses. On the way, your Russian soldiers were giving children candy and food… And all this time Azov (organization banned in Russia) was just hiding behind us, we were their living wall, and that’s all,” she added.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he had decided to launch a special military operation in Donbass. The decision was taken after the heads of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics appealed for help.
Earlier, on February 21, Putin convened an urgent meeting of the Security Council on the issue of recognizing the independence of the Donbass republics. During the address to the Russian people, the head of state announced the recognition of Donbass’ independence from Ukraine and signed agreements with the heads of the republics.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
