MOSCOW, July 19. /TASS/. Russia will never abandon the goals that were announced as part of the special military operation, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a meeting with heads of Russian non-governmental organizations on Wednesday.
"We cannot and we will never abandon the goals that were declared within the framework of the special military operation. <…> We know what we are fighting for. Let the West daily discuss Ukraine’s imaginary offensive and the obstacles created by Russia for the counteroffensive and for achieving their (Kiev authorities’ - TASS) objectives to liberate the entire territory up to the 1991 borders," the Russian foreign minister said.
As Lavrov recalled, Russia has been warning for many years that its national interests cannot be disregarded by molding Ukraine into a direct military threat and a military bridgehead. He said that "the policy of the regime, which has repeatedly demonstrated its neo-Nazi nature, has been encouraged in every possible way to exterminate everything Russian, namely culture, education, mass media and even Russians on the land where their glorious ancestors had lived and built towns and cities throughout centuries."
"Today, I read another ‘revelation’ explaining when it all started and who was the mastermind behind it. Commenting on the need to provide Ukraine with military aid, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said that the West had made a mistake and had not engaged in bolstering Ukraine’s military potential before 2014," Lavrov said.
"It turns out that the goal had been set initially. Admitting that the West’s signature under the Minsk accords was fake, which was made last year in public, overtly, and without any embarrassment, is the final stage of the scheme conceived long before the current process was launched.".