“It is far from being only DPR (Donetsk People’s Republic) and LPR (Luhansk People’s Republic), it is also Kherson region, Zaporizhzhia region and a number of other territories, and this process continues, continues steadily and persistently Lavrov said. during an interview with RIA Novosti, published on Wednesday. Lavrov’s remarks signal the Kremlin’s reoriented approach to the war in Ukraine. Just three months ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin shifted his military efforts to the east of the country after failing to capture Kyiv. When Russian forces followed Putin’s order and captured the last town in the Luhansk region still in Ukrainian hands — Lysychansk — earlier this month, their next move was expected to be in neighboring Donetsk region. If Donetsk fell, Moscow would seize the entire Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, which has been home to Russian-backed separatist factions since 2014. However, the newly procured $400 million US HIMARS multiple launch missile systems have boosted ability of the Ukrainian military to strike Russian targets — a major factor that has caused new problems for Moscow. Earlier this month, massive explosions occurred in several occupied areas in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions. The available evidence, from satellite imagery and Western analysts, is that the targeting was highly effective. Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the Ukrainian President’s Chief of Staff, repeated calls for more HIMARS weapons on Ukrainian television on Wednesday. Lavrov said that as the West continues to supply Ukraine with more long-range weapons, including the High Mobility Artillery Missile System (HIMARS), Russia’s geographic targets in Ukraine will move further away from the current line. “We cannot allow any weapons into the part of Ukraine controlled by Zelensky or whoever replaces him, which pose a direct threat to our territory or the territory of republics that have declared their independence or those that wish to determine their own future. regardless,” Lavrov said. “The President was very clear, as you mentioned: denationalization and demilitarization in the sense that there should be no threat to our security, no military threat from the territory of Ukraine, and that goal remains,” Lavrov said.
Lavrov also said it was “pointless” to hold talks with Ukraine at the moment, in an interview with Russia’s state news agency Russia Today on Wednesday. He accused the West of pressuring Ukraine to refrain from negotiations until it can “start talking from a position of strength.” Lavrov claimed that Russia was ready to make a deal with Ukraine, but nothing came of it. “We handed them a document which, I emphasize again, was based on their logic,” Lavrov said in the interview, which was published on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s website. “They got that document on April 15 and we haven’t heard from them since.” “But we have heard other things, from Scholz, from Boris Johnson who is obviously not saying it now, from Ursula von der Leyen and many others, including the chief diplomat Borrell, that Ukraine must win on the battlefield, that Ukraine should not negotiate now because it is in a weak position on the front line and that Ukraine must first improve that position and start dominating the Russian armed forces, the militias of Donetsk and Luhansk and only then start talking from position of power,” Lavrov said. . “I think this kind of talk is for the birds, as they say,” he added. CNN’s Rob Picheta, Tim Lister, Kostan Nechyporenko and Oren Liebermann contributed to this report.