The goal of “demilitarization of Ukraine” proclaimed by Moscow at the beginning of its invasion of the neighboring country was “mainly achieved”, but Russia “is obliged to take much tougher measures due to the involvement of the West”, Kremlin Spokesman Dmytro Peskov said, quoted by EFE.

“Ukraine is using less and less of its own weapons and more and more weapons systems supplied by Western countries,” said Dmytro Peskov, a spokesman for the Russian president. Therefore, “one of the tasks” proposed by Moscow “was in fact largely accomplished,” he added.

Peskov insisted that Ukraine was “strongly militarized” a year and a half ago, which cannot be said now.

He claimed that now the countries of the West are “increasingly involved”, thus becoming a side, and this “leads to the prolongation” of the conflict: “This makes the situation in Europe more tense and unpredictable. This forces Russia to take much tougher measures to ensure its security.”

This was stated by the Russian president’s spokesman in an interview with RT Arabic, according to the independent Russian publication Meduza.io, recognized by the authorities in Moscow as “undesirable”.

Denys Pushylin, the leader installed by Moscow in Donetsk, said, commenting on Peskov’s statements, that in fact the Kremlin spokesman spoke only about the weapons that were in Ukraine and that were destroyed by Russia: “Ukraine would not be able to fight with the Russian army. without Western arms supplies.”

“In this sense, demilitarization is complete, but this does not mean that ‘denazification’ should not be carried out,” Pushilin said, as quoted by TASS, referring to Moscow’s second “goal”, which, according to Western analysts, is to eliminate the current leadership from Kyiv.

In other statements quoted by RIA Novosti, Pushylin insisted that the completion of “demilitarization” will not prevent Russia from continuing to “liberate” territories in Donetsk, Luhansk (east), Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions (south).

In May, Dmytro Peskov said that the goals that Russia had set for itself when it launched the “special forces operation” had been “partially achieved” in more than a year of full-scale war. Putin said this week that the goals of the military campaign had been changed, but without fundamental changes.

On February 24, 2022, when ordering the invasion of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin referred to the need to “demilitarize and de-Nazify” the neighboring country, as well as protect the population of Donbas. (Source: Agerpres)