MOSCOW, March 1. /TASS/. Russia respects the Ukrainian people and does not intend to infringe on the citizens’ interests, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in his video address to the Geneva conference on disarmament.

"As [Russian] President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly stressed, we always respect the Ukrainian people, their language and traditions. We do not intend to infringe on the interests of the Ukrainian citizens in any way, with whom we are united not only by a shared history, civilizational, spiritual, cultural kinship but also simply by blood, family ties," Lavrov said. "Millions of Ukrainian natives reside in Russia today. As far as we are concerned, they are our [people]. We have always been together and will be many times stronger and more successful."

On February 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the recognition of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics. The treaties on friendship, cooperation, and mutual assistance were signed with their leaders.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address on February 24 that in response to a request by the leaders of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation. The Russian head of state stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories. Russia’s Defense Ministry reported later that Russian troops were not delivering strikes against Ukrainian cities. It emphasized that Ukrainian military infrastructure was being destroyed through the use of precision weapons. Civilians are not threatened, the Russian military assured.