Status: 07/20/2022 3:45 p.m
According to Foreign Minister Lavrov, Russia’s goals in Ukraine are no longer limited to the Donbass. It is now about other territories. This is in response to longer-range western weapons.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has threatened to occupy more areas of Ukraine in response to western arms deliveries. “The geography is different now,” said Russia’s chief diplomat in an interview with state television station RT.
It is no longer just about the Donbass with the “People’s Republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk recognized by Russia and the southern Ukrainian regions of Cherson and Zaporizhia, but also about “a number of other territories,” said Lavrov. “This process is going on, it is going on consistently and vigorously.”
West provide weapons with increasing range
According to Lavrov, Ukraine is receiving weapons from the West with ever-increasing ranges of up to 300 kilometers. That is why the Ukrainian troops have to be pushed further and further back so that there is no threat to the “People’s Republics” or Russia.
Russia cannot allow the rest of the territory, which is still controlled by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy or anyone else, to pose a threat. Lavrov reminded that Russia’s priority is to demilitarize Ukraine.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced at the start of a video conference call with allies that the US would deliver four more HIMARS missile launcher systems to Ukraine.
A fifth of Ukraine occupied
According to Ukrainian data, Russia has occupied more than 20 percent of Ukraine’s territory since the start of the war. Currently, the Russian army is slowly but steadily advancing in the Donbass.
In the south, in the Kherson province, according to experts such as the Institute for the Study of War, the Ukrainian army managed to retake territory. In order to stop the Russian advance and recapture the occupied territories, the Ukrainian government is repeatedly demanding heavy weapons with longer ranges.
Shaded in white: advance of the Russian army. Shaded in green: Russian-backed separatist areas. Crimea: annexed by Russia.
Image: ISW/07/19/2022
Moscow: No new negotiations
During a visit to the Iranian capital Tehran on Tuesday evening, Putin made it clear that an earlier offer by Russia for a solution to the conflict was no longer valid. Ukraine had rejected Russian demands to voluntarily relinquish territories. The main focus was on the Donbass with the Luhansk and Donetsk regions and the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014.
However, the Russian military had said early on that they wanted to completely separate the country from the sea and take over the entire south, including the city of Odessa. According to the Russian news agency Ria Novosti, Lavrov also reiterated that peace talks with Ukraine currently make no sense.
Topic overview
war in Ukraine