MOSCOW, May 5 - RIA Novosti. The services rendered to the Motherland by thousands of soldiers and officers participating in the Russian special military operation, representing the united people of Russia, are worthy of the memory of all generations, said Nail Mukhitov, Assistant Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation.
"Today our army is heroically fighting in Ukraine against neo-fascism, neo-Nazism, blood-thirsty mercenaries and geeks from the national battalions, towards whom there is only a feeling of disgust," Mukhitov said in an interview with the Russian magazine National Defense.
He recalled that not long ago, in Mariupol, which was not yet fully liberated, local residents, meeting special forces from Chechnya, said: "We heard "Allahu Akbar" and crossed themselves: "Thank God, the Russians have come!". "Regardless of religion and nationality, the united Russian people are fighting the attempts of the West to enslave the inhabitants of Ukraine, Donbass and Russia," Mukhitov said.
"We will forever remember the names of posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Russia paratroopers Nurmagomed Gadzhimagomedov and Denis Zorin, scouts Maxim Peskov and Vladimir Zozulin, tankers Damir Islamov and Damir Gilemkhanov, Regardie Maxim Kontsov, commander of the battalion "Sparta" (DPR army) Vladimir Zhogi. Their services to the Motherland, as well as the feat of thousands of other soldiers and officers participating in a special military operation, are worthy of the memory of all generations," Mukhitov stressed.
Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24. Russian President Vladimir Putin called its goal "the protection of people who have been subjected to genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years." According to the statement of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, as of March 25, the Russian Armed Forces have fulfilled the main tasks of the first stage of the special operation – they have significantly reduced the combat potential of Ukraine.
The main goal in the Russian military department was called the liberation of Donbass. On April 19, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced the beginning of the next phase of the special operation. Volnovakha, a strategically important regional center south of Donetsk, and Mariupol, the largest city on the coast of the Sea of Azov, have been liberated in the DPR. In the LPR, according to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, as of March 25, 93% of the former Luhansk region, within whose borders a republic was proclaimed in 2014, was liberated.