Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that “Russian forces have completely taken control of the city of Svyatogorsk in Donetsk”, stressing that “we have taken control of most of the Donetsk and Luhansk republics.”

Yesterday, the official representative of the Russian Defense Ministry, Igor Konashenkov, said that “Russian armed forces are completing the liberation of the city of Svyatogorsk in the Donetsk Republic and adjacent territories.”

“The refusal of the Ukrainian military to protect the despised regime of Kyiv, led by the Nazis, we consider the only right thing, and this is not negligence, but saving our lives,” he said.

Konashenkov called on “all servicemen and members of regional defense formations in Ukraine to give up reckless resistance in order to save their lives,” stressing that “Russian forces, for their part, guarantee that all Ukrainian soldiers who voluntarily lay down their arms will be treated humanely, and they will return safely to their families.”