Russia sees no reason to change its goals of war against Ukraine – Russian Foreign Minister

Sergey Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister, has said that Russia "sees no reason" to reconsider the goals of the war against Ukraine.

Source: TASS with reference to Lavrov's statement at a press conference during the OSCE meeting on 1 December

Quote: "I believe that the leadership of our special military operation (war against Ukraine - ed.) knows what goals it is pursuing. Control over this operation is carried out permanently by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. 

And we see no reason why our goals (of the war - ed.) should be reconsidered."

Background:

• To justify the full-scale invasion of Ukrainian territory in February 2022, the Kremlin claimed the task of "denazification and demilitarisation" of Ukraine. 
• In particular, on 24 February 2022, Putin stated: "I have decided to conduct a special military operation. Its purpose is to protect people who have been subjected to genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years. And for this purpose, we will strive to demilitarise and denazify Ukraine".
• Dmitry Peskov, Putin's spokesman, stated in February 2022 that "ideally, we need to liberate Ukraine, to clear it of Nazis", and Lavrov stated in March 2022 that "the special operation is designed to put an end to any war that could take place on Ukrainian territory".
• After that, the conditional "goals of the special military operation" to justify the war with Ukraine were repeatedly changed in the Russians’ rhetoric.
• In particular, in June 2023, Vladimir Putin, Russia’s President, made a controversial statement concerning the objectives of the Russian invasion of Ukraine: he believes that they change and stay the same at the same time.
• Aleksandr Lukashenko, the self-proclaimed president of Belarus, declared that the goals of the war against Ukraine have already been achieved.

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