Denies Western Media, Russia: Special Operations Didn't Target Civilians Or Overthrow Current President

JAKARTA - Russia has reiterated the purpose of the special military operation that has been held in Ukraine since February 24, refuting the so-called distorted Western media information.

Russia's special military operations in Ukraine are not aimed at destroying the country or overthrowing its president, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a news conference Thursday.

"Let me emphasize once again what the Western mass media and the Western establishment reject, this operation is not aimed at the civilian population," he was quoted as saying by TASS March 18.

"This operation does not pursue the goal of seizing the territory of the country, destroying the state or overthrowing the current president. We keep saying this again and again," he explained.

"Western media forms a completely distorted picture of current events. They corrupt the information of their own population. They are propaganda tools in the hands of their politicians," Zakharova criticized.

As previously reported, the United Nations human rights office in Geneva, Switzerland revealed that so far 2,032 civilians have been victims of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with details of 780 people killed and 1,252 injured, citing Reuters.

In addition, some 3.2 million civilians, mostly women and children, have now fled to neighboring countries, the UN said. A Ukrainian official said about 3,810 people were evacuated through the humanitarian corridor on Thursday, a much smaller number than Wednesday.

Not only residents and civilian buildings affected by this war. The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday it had verified 43 attacks on health facilities in Ukraine that had killed 12 people and injured dozens, including health workers.

"In any conflict, attacks on health services are a violation of international humanitarian law," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the UN Security Council, without specifying who was to blame for the attacks.