The Moscow Kremlin and the Russian Foreign Ministry buildingMOSCOW, March 7 the quality of Russia's relations with Europe, the United States and NATO as a whole, Oleg Tyapkin, director of the third European Department of the Foreign Ministry, said in an interview with RIA Novosti. European countries and the EU as a whole, as well as with the United States and the North Atlantic Alliance led by them", he said.
Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24. Russian President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years.» For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out «demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine», to bring to justice all war criminals responsible for «bloody crimes against civilians» in Donbass. According to the Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces strike only at military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops, civilian the population is not in danger. With the support of the Russian military, the DPR and LPR groups are developing an offensive. The occupation of Ukraine is out of the question, Putin emphasized.