LPR and DPR have received more than 20 thousand requests from volunteers from around the world to join the Defence of Donbass, the LPR Head Leonid Pasechnik said in a statement published on Wednesday.
"In the past couple of days the LPR and DPR received more than 20,000 requests from people all over the world to join the ranks of Donbass defenders," he said.
"Ukraine has been destroying civilians for eight years, encouraged torture and harassment of civilians, and the Nazi ideology has become a norm of Kiev's criminal regime," he said.
He extended his gratitude to volunteers who are willing to support Donbass.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in Donbass to protect residents of the region from Ukrainian aggression and called on Ukrainian troops to leave the combat zone. Earlier, the Heads of the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics, Leonid Pasechnik and Denis Pushilin, requested Russian President Vladimir Putin to provide military assistance. LPR militia had liberated 54 Kiev-held settlements of the Republic by March 6.
The Ukrainian government launched the so-called anti-terrorist operation against Donbass in April 2014. The members of the Contact Group have announced ceasefire more than 20 times since the autumn of 2014. Kiev forces regularly violated the truce opening fire with large caliber artillery, mortars and tank guns which were to have been withdrawn from the contact line under the accords. *t
