(MENAFN) Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated that his country is not fighting the Ukrainian people, but rather their leadership and foreign forces that are using the country as a proxy.

He said that Ukrainian soldiers are being exploited as cannon fodder by Kiev's "neo-Nazi regime."

On Friday, the president told the mothers of Russian troops that those who provide Ukraine with weapons and bankroll the Kiev administration have no regard for Ukraine's casualties.

Meanwhile, those who do not obey orders are executed on the spot in front of their colleagues, according to Putin, citing information provided to him by direct sources.

“Our boys have seen this firsthand. The bodies of the executed are just left to lie there. Just recently there was another case – five people were shot right in front of the lineup, those who refused to go or left their positions,” the leader stated. He seemed to be alluding to an event reported last week by Russia's Defense Ministry in which Kiev allegedly dispatched nationalist extremists into the village of Belogorovka to "put things in order" and scare Ukrainian military, a number of whom refused to follow instructions and were shot.

“There is a completely different moral atmosphere [in Kiev’s forces],” Putin highlighted, noting that this once again approved that “we are dealing with a neo-Nazi regime, without any exaggerations.” 

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