Russia plans to resist Western sanctions and complete its target in the eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told CNN on Thursday.
Asked about Russia’s intention to occupy parts of the Ukrainian territories in Odessa, Kharkiv and Kherson, Peskov said the decision would depend on the “will of the local population.”
“The number one goal is to protect the people of Donbas and Luhansk from those who are bombing Donetsk, for example, right now, and killing civilians there. And they have been doing so for the last eight or nine years,” he said.
“As for other territories and regions of Ukraine, you know, the more our military is clearing the territory of these nationalist regiments, the more people welcome them and the more people declare their desire to interrupt their future life with the modern regime in Kyiv, “he said.
Peskov says Russia poses no threat to the Baltic states and Finland, which announced its intention to join NATO last month, breaking decades of non-military alliance following the invasion of Ukraine. by Russia.
“We are confident that the membership of Finland and Sweden in NATO will not bring any additional benefit to the security of the European continent. On the contrary, it will lead to additional tension,” he said.
The spokesman acknowledged that Moscow was not in a “comfortable position” after the West’s “unprecedented” economic sanctions against Russia, but said that the “crucial effect” of the sanctions that the West expected “did not happen”. “.
“Now we feel even a little better than we thought,” Peskov said, adding: “Of course we understand our problems. 40% -45% on imports “.
He said Russia plans a “very serious boost” to 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 east, “Peskov said, hinting that imports from Asian countries would increase.” All this is very possible because our world is so big and so rich. “