Lavrov States Russia's Main Goal

Russia has never sought to simply seize territories, whether it be Crimea, Donbass, or Novorossiya; its aim is to protect the Russians who have historically lived in these lands. This was stated by Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

“I would like to emphasize once again that we have never talked about just capturing certain territories. Neither Crimea, nor Donbass, nor Novorossiya have ever been our goal as territories,” the minister noted.

According to Lavrov, Russia's primary task was to protect the Russian people who discovered these regions and have historically lived in these areas. He reminded that Russians “shed blood for them in Crimea and Donbass, and built cities such as Odessa, Mykolaiv, and many others.”