MOSCOW, March 2. /TASS/. Russia’s special operation in Ukraine was launched with the aim of disarming the current regime in Kiev and preventing it from obtaining nuclear weapons, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with the broadcaster Al Jazeera. An extract from the interview was uploaded in Arabic to the broadcaster’s Twitter page.

"The military operation in Ukraine, including Kiev, is aimed at disarming Ukraine. Russia will not let Ukraine obtain nuclear weapons," Al Jazeera quotes Lavrov as saying.

Earlier, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky told the Munich Security Conference that Kiev might revise its obligations under the Budapest Memorandum, by which Ukraine had agreed to give away nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees.