“To avoid civilian casualties”: Shoigu announced a deliberate slowdown in the offensive of the Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine

Russia will complete the special operation to support the Donbass after the completion of all tasks, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said at a meeting of the Council of Defense Ministers of the Collective Security Treaty Organization.

“Despite the large-scale Western assistance to the Kyiv regime and sanctions pressure on Russia, we will continue the special military operation until all tasks are completed,” Shoigu said.

According to him, for the exit of residents from the surrounded settlements, silence regimes are announced and humanitarian corridors are created, which slows down the speed of the offensive.

“But this is being done deliberately in order to avoid civilian casualties,” Shoigu said.

He also stressed that Western countries, fearing the defeat of the Ukrainian troops, “urgently organized the supply of lethal weapons” and launched a large-scale campaign to misinform the world community about the true causes of the Ukrainian crisis.

• Statement by Sergei Shoigu regarding the actions of the Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine

“Efforts were intensified for Ukraine to join NATO, deploy a coalition military infrastructure on its territory, and the country itself turned into a state hostile to us, used as an instrument of pressure on Russia,” the head of the Russian Defense Ministry emphasized.

Shoigu also noted that there was a threat of Ukraine creating nuclear weapons, and on the territory of the country the United States formed a network of biological laboratories, research in which was carried out secretly, in violation of international obligations.

Also on russian.rt.com Patrushev: Russia is not chasing the timing of the special operation in Ukraine

Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of the Russian Security Council, also spoke about the special military operation of the Russian Federation in support of Donbass in an interview with Argumenty i Fakty.

According to him, Russia is not chasing deadlines in this matter.

“Nazism either needs to be 100% eradicated, or it will rear its head in a few years, and in an even uglier form,” Patrushev said.

- All the goals set by the President of Russia will be fulfilled.

It cannot be otherwise, since the truth, including historical truth, is on our side.”

He also stressed that the fate of Ukraine will be determined by its population: “I would like to remind you that our country has never controlled the fate of sovereign powers.

On the contrary, we helped them to defend their statehood.”

Answering a question about the decision of Finland and Sweden to join NATO, Patrushev stressed that the alliance is "the purest aggressive offensive military bloc."

“Entering it implies the automatic transfer of a significant part of its sovereignty to Washington.

In the event of an expansion of the military infrastructure of the alliance on the territory of Finland and Sweden, Russia will perceive this as a direct threat to its own security and will be obliged to respond, ”the secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation stated.

Italian settlement plan 

Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov, in turn, answered a question from journalists about the Italian plan to resolve the situation in Ukraine.

“We hope that it will be brought to our attention through diplomatic channels and we will be able to get acquainted with it,” he said.

In turn, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev called the West's peace initiatives to resolve the situation in Ukraine, including Italy's plan, "a pure stream of consciousness."

In his opinion, the four-stage plan for a peaceful settlement in Ukraine proposed by the representatives of Italy “was prepared not by diplomats, but by local political scientists who have read provincial newspapers and operate only with Ukrainian fakes.”

“If we offer peaceful initiatives, then those that are based on a sober calculation and reflect the current state of affairs.

And such a document has long been handed over to Russia for discussion.

If peace proposals are created strictly in the interests of NATO and the Western world order, then such calls should simply be ignored.

Simply put, send their authors in a certain direction,” he wrote on Telegram.

The day before, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko said that Moscow had received proposals from Rome to resolve the Ukrainian crisis.

The Russian side is studying this plan, the diplomat said.