Russia-Ukraine war: Russian FM claims over 1mn people evacuated to Russia since Feb 24

As the Moscow-Kyiv war continues to escalate despite global attempts and appeals to stop Russian aggression, the Foreign Minister of Russia, Sergei Lavrov has claimed that over 1 million individuals have been "evacuated" from war-torn Ukraine to Russia since the war commenced on February 24. The Russian minister made these remarks after a statement was released by the ministry on early Saturday.  

According to Lavrov, Russia's interdepartmental coordination offices for the humanitarian response have received requests to provide help in removing 2.8 million people to Russia, including 16,000 foreign citizens and UN and OSCE international mission staff, The Guardian reported. Furthermore, the foreign minister told China's Xinhua news agency, “In total, 1.02 million people were evacuated from Ukraine, the DPR and the LPR, of which over 120 thousand citizens of third countries.” 

In addition to this, on April 23, Saturday, Mikhail Mizintsev, the chief of the Russian Federation's National Defense Control Center, reported that 16,838 individuals, including 1,402 children, were evacuated to Russia from unsafe zones of Ukraine without the cooperation of Ukrainian authorities, Interfax reported. He went on to say that a total of 951,329 individuals, including 174,689 children, had been evacuated to Russia. 

Meanwhile, on the other hand, Ukraine has claimed that thousands of civilians have been forcibly evacuated to Russia with humanitarian corridors constantly breaking down, The Guardian reported. According to the United Nations estimates, over 5.4 million people have fled Ukraine to other neighbouring nations to seek security since the invasion began. 

Sergei Lavrov accuses NATO of meddling with political settlement in Ukraine

Apart from this, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has accused NATO of meddling with the political settlement in Ukraine. Lavrov also stated that Nato members are "doing everything" possible to prevent the Russian special military operation from being completed and political accords from being reached. 

Further, Lavrov went on to say that Kyiv's Western allies are using violent 'rhetoric' and provocative tactics. The Russian foreign minister said, as quoted by The Guardian, “They actually encourage him to ‘fight to the last Ukrainian’, pumping up the country with weapons and sending mercenaries there. I note that the Ukrainian special services, with the help of Westerners, staged a crude bloody provocation in Bucha, including to complicate the negotiation process". 

Moscow does not consider itself at war with NATO over Ukraine, according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who spoke to Al Arabiya News. NATO, it appears, believes itself to be at war with Russia, Lavrov said as the conflict in Ukraine entered its ninth week.