(Moscow) The head of Russian diplomacy said, on Wednesday, that Russia’s military objectives in Ukraine are no longer limited to the east of the country, but also relate to “other regions” and can expand.
Posted at 7:43 am
Updated at 9:13 am.
Sergei Lavrov justified this change with a “different geography” compared to the situation on the ground at the end of March, when Moscow said it wanted to focus on the east, after it failed to capture Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital.
“Not only are the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (separatist regions of eastern Ukraine, editor’s note), it is also the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions (in the south, editor’s note) and a series of other regions,” he said in an interview with RIA Novosti news agency and RT channel.
M. Lavrov a aussi déclaré que mener des pourparlers avec Kyiv n’aurait « aucun sens dans la situation actuelle », estimant que de précédents contacts avaient « seulement révélé l’absence de volonté, deukrainz de que ie quo As for “.
The comments come as Moscow has made gains in recent weeks in eastern Ukraine, including breaking the dual lock-down of Severodonetsk and Lyschansk, paving the way for it to attempt to advance toward the westward cities of Kramatorsk and Slovyansk.
However, heavy fighting continues in this part and in southern Ukraine, where Kyiv has been able to count on recent deliveries of more efficient Western artillery pieces.
Lavrov also warned that if the West continued to supply Ukraine with weapons capable of striking from long distances, such as the US HIMARS multiple rocket launchers, Russia’s geographical targets would continue to evolve.
“Because we cannot allow the part of Ukraine controlled by (Volodymyr) Zelensky or his successor to have weapons that could directly threaten our lands or the territories of (separatist) republics that have declared their independence or want to choose their future,” he said.
The United States on Tuesday accused Russia, which also controls swathes of territory in southern Ukraine, of “working to annex” the areas it controls, as it did in 2014 with Crimea.
