The “liberation” of the Donets basin is a priority for Russia and Putin is not sick. That said the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in an interview with the French channel on Sunday evening TF1.
Russian troops have recently stepped up their attacks in the Donets Basin. Certainly after the fall of the port city of Mariupol, the Russian offensive in the eastern region intensified. The Donets Basin has traditionally been the industrial heart of Ukraine. For Russia, it is an “unreserved priority” to “liberate the Donets basin,” Lavrov said.
It was striking that Lavrov said that other Ukrainian areas can decide for themselves about their future. While he doesn’t expect them to be happy to return under the Ukrainian government’s authority, “people have to make up their own mind about that,” Lavrov said.
The Russian minister again called the Ukrainian government in Kyiv a regime of neo-Nazis. Also, Russia still does not speak of a war in Ukraine, but of a “special military operation”.
Furthermore, in the interview, Lavrov also contradicted rumors that Russian President Vladimir Putin is ill. “I don’t think sane people can detect symptoms of a disease or ailment in him,” he said. Lavrov emphasized that Putin, who will turn 70 later this year, will still appear in public “every day”.
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