"Russia's goal has never been to seize territories, but to protect Russians" - Lavrov

Russia's goal has never been to seize territory, but to protect Russians. This was stated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

"I want to emphasize once again: we have never said that we should simply seize certain territories. Neither Crimea, nor Donbass, nor Novorossiya as territories have never been our goal. Our goal was to protect the people, the Russian people, who have lived on these lands for centuries, who discovered these lands, shed blood for them both in Crimea and in Donbass, created cities - Odessa, Nikolaev, many others, ports, factories, plants," Lavrov noted.