Russia is now claiming that it did not intend to overthrow the government of Ukraine

ROMAN PETRENKO - WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2022, 12:18 p.m.

Russian aims did not include overthrowing the current government in Ukraine, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Source: Director of the Information and Press Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Maria Zakharova during a briefing, quoted by "Interfax".

Zakharova's quote: "Our tasks neither include the occupation of Ukraine, nor the destruction of its statehood, nor the overthrow of the current government. This operation is not directed against the civilian population."

Why this is important: The Kremlin has given the failure of the Ukrainian authorities to obey Russian demands and their refusal to surrender Donbass as one of the reasons for their attack on Ukraine.

The president of the aggressor country, Vladimir Putin, has called Ukraine's leadership a "gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis" and the war a "denazification."

Recognising its failure after a few days of war, Russia has begun to reduce and change its demands.

On March 7, the Kremlin claimed that its demilitarisation of Ukraine was coming to an end. "Denazification" was no longer mentioned.

On the same day, Bellingcat Chairman Hristo Grozev announced that Russia had asked President Vladimir Zelensky to remain in office.