In televised remarks, Lavrov also said Russia may seek more ground along the front lines in Ukraine, calling it a buffer against the US-supplied Himars long-range missile artillery. While Lavrov claimed that Russia’s new territorial ambitions were spurred by the course of the war, the initial invasion sought to seize much of southern Ukraine and seize the capital, Kyiv. Despite this evidence, the Kremlin maintained that it launched its attack to protect its proxy governments in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. “Now the geography is different,” Lavrov said, in a shift in rhetoric from the Russian government. “It’s not just Donetsk and Luhansk, it’s Kherson, Zaporizhia and a number of other regions. And this is a continuous process, consistent and persistent.” His remarks were also an admission that the invasion was planned as a war of conquest, despite early denials by Russian President Vladimir Putin that Russia planned to seize any new Ukrainian territory. The Russian government has sought to integrate Donetsk and Luhansk by introducing the Russian ruble, Russian telecommunications networks and other infrastructure, and crushing protests and local dissent. John Kirby, a spokesman for the US National Security Council, said Russia plans to annex more Ukrainian territory, possibly in September to coincide with regional elections. “Russia is starting to put out a version of what you might call an annexation playbook, very similar to what we saw in 2014,” he said, referring to Russia’s annexation of Crimea. “The Russian government is reviewing detailed plans to allegedly annex certain regions of Ukraine, including Kherson, Zaporizhia, Donetsk and Luhansk,” Kirby said on Tuesday, a day before Lavrov’s interview was made public. It was not clear which other territories Lavrov was referring to in his remarks. Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST Speaking to RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan, Lavrov also said Russia would seek more ground because of Western military aid to Ukraine, particularly the delivery of Himars missile systems that have destroyed a number of Russian military command posts. “The West … in a desire to aggravate the situation to the maximum has pumped Ukraine with more and more long-range weapons,” he said, citing statements by a Ukrainian defense minister that Ukraine was negotiating for munitions that could hit targets 300 kilometers away. “That means our aim will be to push them even further away from the current line. “Because we cannot allow this part of Ukraine to be controlled by [Volodymyr] Zelensky or whoever replaces him, there were weapons that could pose a direct threat to our territory.” Russia has fired cruise missiles at Ukrainian cities far behind the front lines. A recent attack in the western Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia left 25 dead, including many children.
