Russia now seeking regime change in Ukraine, Lavrov says as Moscow expands war goals
- Russia’s foreign minister says Moscow wants change of political leadership in Kyiv
- Moscow is publicly stating its expanded war goals in the five-month-old conflict
Moscow is seeking to overthrow the Ukrainian government, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, going back on earlier statements that the leadership question was up to the Ukrainian people.
“We will definitely help the Ukrainian people to free themselves from the regime that is absolutely anti-people and anti-history,” Lavrov said on Sunday, five months to the day since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin calls the war a “special military operation” and has said it is aimed at demilitarising Ukraine and rooting out dangerous nationalists. Kyiv and the West call this a baseless pretext for an aggressive land grab.
Lavrov’s remark came as the Russian leadership has publicly toughened its position in the Ukraine war in recent days.
On Wednesday, Lavrov threatened to occupy further territories outside the eastern Donbas region where most of the fighting is currently concentrated, in what would be be an expansion of the Kremlin’s previously stated war goals.