Russian Foreign Minister: ‘We Have Not Invaded Ukraine’Frances Martel 10 Mar 2022
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov declared that Russia had “not invaded Ukraine” and had no “plan to invade other countries,” following yet another round of failed peace talks between his country and Ukraine on Thursday.
The Russian government, under leader Vladimir Putin, invaded and colonized Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014, formally annexing the region into the country. Russia, extensive evidence has revealed since, has supported an insurgency in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, arming and encouraging separatists there to fight against the Ukrainian military. Russia denies any role in Donbas but formally “annexed” Crimea in 2014, shortly after the fall of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych after months of pro-democracy protests.
More recently, in February, Putin announced that he would recognize Donbas as consisting of two sovereign states, the Donetsk and Luhansk “People’s Republics,” and that those two “countries” had requested Russian military assistance to fight Ukraine. Putin ordered a full-scale military assault that continues to this day, focusing significantly on capturing territory far from Donbas, including the capital, Kyiv, which is about 500 miles from both Donetsk and Luhansk.
During his speech announcing the recognition of Donetsk and Luhansk, Putin asserted that “modern Ukraine was completely created by Russia” and “has never had stable traditions of their own statehood.”
As a result of the operation, Russia has occupied strategic locations throughout the country, including several nuclear power plants.
Lavrov rejected the description of any of this behavior as an “invasion” on Thursday.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/03/10/russian-foreign-minister-we-have-not-invaded-ukraine/
