NOVO-OGARYOVO, October 18. /TASS/. The Russian Army fights for native Russian territories - Donbass and Novorossiya - during the special military operation, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during the meeting with the heads of BRICS media.

He said it, commenting on the discussion moderator’s remark that Western states have already abandoned their idea to "defeat Russia on the battlefield," but a discussion is underway about a "swap of territories" in exchange of the "accession of Ukraine’s remains to NATO."

"The territories that our guys are fighting for at the battlefield - are our territories. It is the Lugansk People’s Republic, the Donetsk People’s Republic, Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions," Putin underscored.