Russia-Ukraine war: FM Lavrov claims Moscow won't occupy Kyiv; 'Aim is demilitarization'

Amid the mounting crisis in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held a press conference on Friday regarding Moscow's military actions in the neighbouring nation. FM Lavrov reiterated that Russia's military operation in Ukraine 'aims to demilitarize and denazify the East European country and no one is going to occupy it'. The presser, which was held after meeting with the recently declared independent republics, had in attendance- Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Luhansk People's Republic VN Deinego and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Donetsk People's Republic SS Peresada.

"No one is going to occupy Ukraine. The aim of the operation has been openly declared: demilitarizing and denazifying," Lavrov emphasised, according to Russian news agency TASS. "Russia sees no possibility of recognizing the Ukrainian government as democratic given that is 'oppressing and using methods of genocide against its own people." Russia's top diplomat specified. 

"We will see depending on circumstances as Russian President Vladimir Putin said. He reiterated that we want to see the Ukrainian people as independent so that it can have a government that will represent a wide diversity and so that it won’t be in a situation where it is under full external administration solely focused on fueling neo-Nazism, the genocide of Russians and using Ukraine as a tool for containing Russia," he further added.

Russia will retaliate against sanctions from US & EU: Dmitry Peskov

The Kremlin, on Friday, said that sanctions imposed on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine would cause problems for Moscow. According to the Russian news agency, TASS, Russian presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov also stated that Russia will retaliate against the sanctions from the United States and the European Union. He said that they will make decisions solely based on their own interests. 

"Of course, we will follow up with retaliatory measures," Peskov said. He added that the severity of these measures will depend on the analysis of the situation. "All these restrictions still need to be analyzed," he explained. "Of course, during this analysis, the main concern will be our own interests. That is, we will act solely based on our own interests," Peskov said.

Russia-Ukraine war

Russia resumed its attack on Ukraine early Friday, one day after invading the country by land, sea, and air, murdering over 100 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians and igniting a tense confrontation near the extremely deadly Chernobyl nuclear reactor, which melted down in 1986.

The Russian military began its attack before sunrise on Thursday, Day 1 of the first major land war in Europe in decades, with the terrifying thud of artillery strikes on airports and military installations across Ukraine. Russian special forces and airborne troops were pressing into the outskirts of Kyiv by the end of Thursday. While Russia's president, Vladimir V. Putin, and his generals' final purpose remained unknown.

Image: AP