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More than 1,200 residents of the the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR), as well as of Ukraine, were granted temporary asylum in Russia in the past month, TASS reported on Wednesday, citing the Russian Interior Ministry’s press service.

"Between February 18 and March 16, 2022, a total of 1,515 residents of DPR, LPR and Ukraine filed requests for temporary asylum on the territory of the Russian Federation," the press service said, answering to a TASS request for a comment.

"Temporary asylum was granted to 1,204 people," a spokesperson said.

The majority of those who obtained temporary asylum are staying in Western Russia’s Penza Region (149 people), and in the Central Russia’s regions of Nizhny Novgorod (130 people), Lipetsk (91 people) and Ryazan (85 people).

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in Ukraine, stressing that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories. Putin said that the goals of the operation are demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine.