Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has publicly stated that Moscow’s overarching goal in the war in Ukraine is to topple the government of President Volodymyr Zelensky, The Associated Press reported.
- Lavrov made the comments in a conversation with envoys at an Arab League summit in Cairo late Sunday. In his remarks, the Russian Foreign Minister said Moscow is determined to help Ukrainians “liberate themselves from the burden of this absolutely unacceptable regime.”
Lavrov accused Kyiv and “its Western allies” of spouting propaganda intended to ensure that Ukraine “becomes the eternal enemy of Russia.”
“Russian and Ukrainian people would continue to live together, we will certainly help Ukrainian people to get rid of the regime, which is absolutely anti-people and anti-historical,” he said, according to AP.
- Lavrov’s remarks contrasted sharply with the Kremlin’s line early in the war, when Russian officials repeatedly emphasized that they weren’t seeking to overthrow Zelensky’s government.
In his remarks Sunday, Lavrov argued that Russia was ready to negotiate a deal to end hostilities in March when Kyiv changed tack and declared its intention to rout Russia on the battlefield, adding that the West has encouraged Ukraine to keep fighting.
- Lavrov’s comments came days after he said that Moscow is expanding the scope of the Ukraine war beyond the eastern Donbas region.
Russia’s new goals in the conflict will include expanding deeper into Ukrainian territory if Western nations continue sending Kyiv long-range missiles, such as the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), Lavrov told state news agency RIA Novosti.
- Zelensky said on Sunday that, after five months of Russian attacks, Ukraine will continue to do all it can to inflict as much damage on its enemy as possible.
“Even the occupiers admit we will win,” he said in his nightly video address, as quoted by Reuters.
“We hear it in their conversations all the time. In what they are telling their relatives when they call them.”
Source: Arutz Sheva