MOSCOW, January 25. /TASS/. Defending Russia and its people from threats against its historical lands has been the special military operation’s objective, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday.

"The goal [of the special military operation], as I have said many times before, is primarily to protect the people and Russia itself from threats being posed to it on our historical lands bordering our territory. We cannot allow this to happen," the Russian leader said in his speech devoted to Russian Students Day.

A student of the Lugansk State Pedagogical University, Vladislav Oleinik, told Putin how he took part in the special military operation. The president thanked him and his fellow soldiers for their participation in the fighting "to defend the people and our compatriots."

Putin praised the young man’s ambition to pursue his career at the Federal Security Service (FSB), but he lamented that the student of the Lugansk State Pedagogical University was not planning to become a teacher, "because there is demand for such people in [the field of] pedagogy, at schools, and at higher education institutions."

"I wish you all the best and will certainly take your desire to work for the Federal Security Service into account," Putin, a former foreign intelligence officer at the FSB’s predecessor, the KGB, assured the young man.