Ukraine crisis: Vladimir Putin claims Russia is offering safe corridors

Russian President Vladimir Putin says the Russian military has offered safe corridors to civilians to allow them to leave areas of fighting in Ukraine.

Putin, speaking in a video call with members of his Security Council, has charged that Ukrainian nationalist groups are preventing civilians from leaving.

The Russian leader said the groups were also using civilians as shields, taking up firing positions to provoke the Russian retaliatory fire. Putin's claim couldn't be independently verified.

The Russian military says it has only struck military facilities and haven't targeted residential areas, a claim that has been contradicted by the abundant evidence of massive casualties and damage to residential areas of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Chernihiv and other cities in Ukraine documented by The Associated Press.

Putin reaffirmed his claim that the Russian military was fighting neo-Nazis, adding that some Ukrainians were also fooled by nationalist propaganda.

He hailed the Russian military as heroes and ordered additional payments to families of the soldiers who were killed and servicemen who were wounded in action.