Moscow’s goal is to remove ‘unacceptable’ Kyiv regime, - Minister

CAIRO, Egypt

Russia’s top diplomat said Moscow’s overarching goal in Ukraine is to remove from power its “unacceptable regime,” expressing the Kremlin’s war aims in some of the bluntest terms yet as its forces pummel the country with heavy bombardment.

The remark from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov comes amid Ukraine’s efforts to resume grain exports from its Black Sea ports, something that would help ease global food shortages, under a new deal tested by a Russian strike on Odesa over the weekend.

After the failed attempt to seize much of the country amid its February invasion, Moscow officials have stated that the goal of Russia’s aggression on its western neighbour was to “liberate” the Kremlin-backed and equipped separatists in the eastern industrial region of the Donbas.

However, this goal was recently expanded to parts of Ukraine’s south, such as the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, while many believe Moscow also has the Black Sea port of Odesa in its crosshairs.

Speaking to envoys at an Arab League summit in Cairo late Sunday, Lavrov accused Kyiv and its Western allies of spouting propaganda intended to ensure that Ukraine “becomes the eternal enemy of Russia”.

"We are determined to help the people of eastern Ukraine to liberate themselves from the burden of this absolutely unacceptable regime,” he said.Suggesting that Moscow’s war aims extend beyond Ukraine’s industrial Donbas region in the east, Lavrov said: “We will certainly help the Ukrainian people to get rid of the regime, which is absolutely anti-people and anti-historical.”

Lavrov’s remarks conflicted with the Kremlin’s line early in the war when it repeatedly emphasised that Russia was not seeking to overthrow President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government, even as Moscow’s troops closed in on Kyiv.
Russia later retreated from around the capital and turned its attention to capturing the Donbas. The fighting is now in its sixth month.

Zelenskyy and other Ukrainian security officials claimed that, in fact, Moscow had sent special units tasked with capturing or killing the Ukrainian president in Kyiv early on in the war.

Lavrov now argued that Russia was ready to negotiate a deal to end hostilities in March when Kyiv changed tack and declared its intention to rout Russia on the battlefield. He said the West has been encouraging Ukraine to keep fighting.

"The West insists that Ukraine must not start negotiations until Russia is defeated on the battlefield,” Lavrov said.