'Geography is different now': Russia's objectives in Ukraine not limited to eastern Donbas region, says Lavrov

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday (July 20) said that Russia’s objectives in Ukraine now extend beyond the eastern Donbas region into the country’s south. His comments came as the war in Ukraine is approaching its fifth month. Lavrov told state media that now, the “geography is different”.

During an interview with RIA Novosti, which was published on Wednesday, Lavrov said, “Denazification, demilitarisation in a sense that there are no military threats to our safety from the territory of Ukraine. This task remains.”

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“When the negotiators met in Istanbul, one sort of geography was discussed. Our willingness to accept the Ukrainian proposal was based on that geography, the geography of the end of March 2022,” he added.

When the reporter asked off camera “Meaning DPR and LPR?”, the Russian foreign minister asserted that now the “geography is different”.

He said: “It’s far from being just the DPR and LPR, it’s also Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions and a number of other territories. And the process is continuing.”

‘Peace talks don’t make sense right now’

Lavrov also said that it makes no sense to resume peace talks with Kyiv at the moment. He also mentioned the weapons and arms supplied by the West allies to Ukraine.

Lavrov said, “As the West pours more and more long-range weapons, such as HIMARS, into Ukraine in an impotent rage or in a desire to exacerbate the situation as much as possible, these HIMARS, (Ukraine’s Defence Minister Oleksii) Reznikov or someone else was boasting that they have already received 300 km ammo — well, that means the geographical tasks of the special operation will extend still further from the current line.”

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Russia plans to annex additional Ukrainian territory: US

Lavrov’s comments came a day after US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that they have “ample evidence” to claim that Russia plans to annex additional Ukrainian territory.

As said by Kirby, the areas targeted for annexation include Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and all of Donetsk and Luhansk.

While speaking from the White House briefing room, Kirby had said, “Russia is laying the groundwork to annex Ukrainian territory that it controls in direct violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty. Russia is beginning to roll out a version of what you could call an annexation playbook, very similar to the one we saw in 2014.”

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