Over 48,000 Ukraine evacuation requests received in past 24 hours - Russian Defense Ministry

MOSCOW. March 9 (Interfax) - A further 48,000 Ukrainians and foreigners have asked to be withdrawn to Russia, the head of Russia's National Defense Control Center, Mikhail Mizintsev, said.

"In the past 24 hours alone we added to our database another 48,543 requests from peaceful citizens of Ukraine and foreigners with requests for evacuation to Russia," Mizintsev told a briefing on Wednesday.

"In total, the database now contains 2,589,910 [such requests] from people in 1,917 Ukrainian settlements," he said.

"To the Ukrainian authorities' claim that there were no people wanting to leave through humanitarian corridors for Russia, we openly state: this is a lie and blatant provocation," Mizintsev said.