Russia plans to withstand Western sanctions and complete its target in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told CNN on Thursday.
Asked about Russia’s intention to occupy parts of Ukrainian territories in Odessa, Kharkiv and Kherson, Peskov said the decision would depend on “the will of the local people.”
“The number one goal is to protect the people of Donbass and Luhansk from those who are shelling Donetsk, for example, at the moment and killing civilians there. And they’ve been doing that for the last eight to nine years, “he said.
“As for other territories and regions of Ukraine, you know, the more our military clears the territory of these nationalist regiments, the more people greet them and the more people express their desire to end their future lives with the modern regime in Kyiv,” he said. he.
Peskov said Russia posed no threat to the Baltic states and Finland, which announced their intention to join NATO last month, disrupting decades of military non-alignment following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“We are confident that the membership of Finland and Sweden in NATO will not bring additional benefits to the security of the European continent. On the contrary, it will lead to additional tensions, “he said.
The spokesman acknowledged that Moscow was not in a “comfortable position” after the West’s “unprecedented” economic sanctions against Russia, but said the “decisive effect” of the sanctions the West had hoped for “did not happen”.
“Now we feel even a little better than one would think,” Peskov said, adding: “Of course, we understand our problems, we understand that in a very short time we will have to compensate for the rather significant reduction of more than 40%.” 45% of imports. “
He said Russia was planning a “very serious boost” in its domestic production and infrastructure.
“In order to reorganize imports, we need to reorganize the direction of imports. To compensate for the western direction by increasing imports from the eastern direction, “Peskov said, alluding to increased imports from Asian countries. “All of this is entirely possible because our world is so big and so rich.”
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