Liberation of Donbas ‘unconditional priority’, other territories to decide themselves – Lavrov

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Sunday that the “liberation” of Ukraine’s Donbas is an “unconditional priority” for Moscow, RIA news agency cited him as saying.

Other territories should decide their future for themselves, he added.

“The liberation of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, recognised by the Russian Federation as independent states, is an unconditional priority,” Lavrov said in an interview with French TV channel TF1, according to RIA.

For the rest of the territories in Ukraine, “the people should decide their future in these areas,” he said.