Russia will continue its attack on Ukraine “until the objectives are achieved,” Defense Minister Announced Tuesday. Sergei Shoigualmost a week after the offensive and after the first dialogue between representatives of the countries.
“The Russian armed forces will continue the special military operation until the set objectives are met,” the official told a news conference broadcast on state television.
The Kremlin seeks the “demilitarization” and the “denazificationof Ukraine, as well as to protect Russia from the “military threat created by Western countries”said the minister quoted by the AFP news agency.
He also highlighted as a goal “the protection of the population of Donbass”the separatist region of eastern Ukraine where Donetsk and Lugansk are located, scenes of a warlike confrontation since 2014 and which Russia recognized last week as independent states.
“The essential thing for us is to protect the Russian Federation from the war threat created by Western countries, determined to use the Ukrainian people in the fight against our country”said.
Shoigu reaffirmed that the Russian army “does not occupy the territories in Ukraine” and “takes all measures to save lives and guarantee the safety of civilians”, according to the statements reproduced by the Sputnik news agency.
“I want to underline that the attacks are directed only against military installations and are carried out exclusively with high-precision weapons.“, he added, despite the fact that the UN Human Rights Office has registered at least 102 deaths and 304 civilian injuries since the war began, a figure much lower than that released by the Ukrainian authorities (352 so far).
The minister denied that Russian forces target civilian or residential infrastructure, and said that Ukrainian forces use it as a shield to protect themselves from attacks by Moscow.
“Multiple rocket launchers and large-caliber mortars are installed in the yards of buildings near schools and kindergartens”said.
Representations of the governments of Ukraine and Russia held a first meeting yesterday, in which at least “some points” were apparently addressed that could lead to future agreements regarding the crisis in the former Soviet republic and that will continue to be discussed in a ” second round”, for now without date.
