Kremlin's Agenda Does Not Include the Question of Annexing Donbass to Russia, Peskov Comments on Margarita Simonyan's Call

The press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Peskov, stated that Moscow will continue to defend the interests of the Russian-speaking population in Donbass, but the question of annexing it to Russia is not on the Kremlin's agenda. This was reported by the TASS news agency.

Peskov made this statement while commenting on the call by Margarita Simonyan, the chief editor of RT. Simonyan called for these territories to be included in the Russian Federation during the "Russian Donbass" forum held in Donetsk.

“Margarita Simonyan is a media manager and journalist. She cannot, in any way, express the official position of the Russian Federation. This issue is not on the agenda,” Peskov noted.

The Kremlin spokesperson emphasized that Russia takes a consistent and responsible stance on defending the interests of the Russian-speaking population in Donbass. He described the name of the forum as “absolutely normal.”

“The overwhelming majority of the population in Donbass are Russians and Russian speakers. Donbass has always been a Russian-speaking region of Ukraine; there have always been many Russians there. This is an absolutely evident fact, and it has always been recorded in all census results,” explained Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov.