Lavrov Says Russia’s Aims in Ukraine Now Go Beyond Donbass

Lavrov Says Russia’s Aims in Ukraine Now Go Beyond Donbass
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov walks after a bilateral meeting at the G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, on July 8, 2022. Willy Kurniawan/Pool/Reuters
Reuters
Updated:

LONDON—Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that Moscow’s military “tasks” in Ukraine now went beyond the eastern Donbass region, in the clearest acknowledgment yet that its war goals have expanded in the past five months.

In an interview with state news agency RIA Novosti, Lavrov said geographical realities had changed since Russian and Ukrainian negotiators held peace talks in Turkey in late March that failed to produce any breakthrough.