MOSCOW, March 3. /TASS/. Moscow believes that it’s doing the right thing in the Ukraine situation, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Russian and foreign media outlets on Thursday.
"We are convinced that we are doing the right thing," he emphasized.
According to Lavrov, Russia "stood up to protect its interests" in relation to Ukraine.
When asked about Russia’s special military operation boosting NATO’s unity, the top diplomat noted that it was largely a diplomatic triumph for the United States.
"NATO was looking for a way to justify its existence, which had gone after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact. First, the Afghanistan issue turned up. When NATO victoriously left Afghanistan, it once again lost a reason to unite allies and keep a tight rein on them. What strategic autonomy is [French] President Macron talking about? No one will ever be allowed to have strategic autonomy, the US has made it clear," Lavrov concluded.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation based on a request from the heads of the Donbass republics. The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans to occupy Ukrainian territories and the goal was to demilitarize and denazify the country.