Russia has never set itself the goal of seizing Crimea, Donbass or Novorossiya, the main task was precisely to protect the Russian people. This was stated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in an interview with Rossiya-24 TV channel.
"I want to emphasize once again: we have never talked about the fact that we just need to seize some territories. Neither Crimea, nor Donbass, nor Novorossiya as territories have ever 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 their blood for them and in Crimea, and on In Donbas, cities were created — Odessa, Nikolaev, many others, ports, factories, factories," the minister noted.