The Russian Ministry of Defense summoned Croatia's military attache on Thursday, March 3. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, about 200 Croatian mercenaries have arrived in Ukraine. This was stated by the official representative of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation Igor Konashenkov during a briefing.
"Only last week, about 200 mercenaries from Croatia arrived through Poland, who joined one of the nationalist battalions in the south-east of Ukraine. Today, the defense attache at the Croatian Embassy in Moscow was summoned to the Russian Defense Ministry," the Zvezda TV channel quotes him as saying.
The ministry said that the military attache was pointed out to the illegal activities of the Croatian citizen Denis Sheler, who participated in the fighting in the south-east of Ukraine in 2015 and formed detachments of Croatian mercenaries to be sent to Ukraine, RT reports.
Konashenkov also stressed that the Defense Ministry drew the attention of the military attache to the fact that the Russian side is aware of the arrival in Ukraine of about 200 Croatian mercenaries.
In addition, the Ministry noted that the West has increased the dispatch of mercenaries to combat areas in Ukraine.
Earlier in the day, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that the country is preparing to meet the first 16 thousand foreign volunteers, reports NSN.
On March 2, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmitry Kuleba confirmed that the decision to provide Ukraine with weapons had already been made by 19 states. In addition, according to him, volunteers from 16 countries are already going to fight.
At the same time, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced that the country was going to supply offensive weapons to Ukraine. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said that the United States intends to continue providing military assistance to Ukraine, including in the supply of weapons, as well as closely coordinate actions in view of Russia's special operation.
Maria Zakharova, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, commented on the ongoing supply of weapons to Kiev. She noted that in the current situation, the supplied weapons could become the prey of neo-Nazis, terrorists and looters on Ukrainian territory.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special operation to protect the civilian population of Donbass. After that, Zelensky accused Russia of hitting the country's military infrastructure and imposed martial law on the entire territory of Ukraine. He also said that Kiev is severing diplomatic relations with Moscow and withdrawing its diplomats from the embassy.
On February 21, Putin signed decrees recognizing the independence of the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR). Also, the President of the Russian Federation and the heads of both republics Leonid Pasechnik and Denis Pushilin signed agreements on friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance, including military assistance.
The Head of state made the relevant decisions against the background of the aggravation of the situation in Donbass that began on February 17. The DPR and LPR reported intense shelling by Ukrainian security forces, including from heavy weapons. The republics announced a general mobilization and evacuation of civilians to the territory of Russia.