Lavrov: Russian military won’t artificially fit their actions to any date, including Victory Day

Russian FM Sergey Lavrov claims that the Russian military will not artificially fit their actions to any date, including Victory Day which is marked on May 9, dismissing widespread reports that Moscow  had plans to celebrate victory over Ukraine on the day. 

 

Lavrov told Italian TV channel  Mediaset on the weekend  that Russia was preparing to celebrate the day of liberation from Nazism.

 

He stated that there was a tradition in the Soviet Union that “something big and loud” had to be done for a holiday, while Russia’s actions in Ukraine were “focused only on definite tasks.”

 

Lavrov suggested that the tasks announced by President Vladimir  Putin were  “protection and security of the civilian population and the absence of threats of offensive weapons for the sake of Ukraine and Russia.” 

 

He siad that May 9 commemorates those who “fell from the Nazi plague to liberate Russia and other former Soviet republics and Europe,” and “the pace of operations in Ukraine depends, first and foremost, on minimizing the risk to civilians and the Russian military.”