Putin keeps saying Russia will fight until it achieves the ‘goals of the special military operation.’ But it’s not clear what those ‘goals’ even are.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on June 28 that he intends to continue military operations in Ukraine. “Our troops will do everything to achieve the goals of the special military operation,” he said. What exactly those “goals” are remains unclear. In the first two years of the full-scale war, the list changed constantly — from the “denazification” of Ukraine to “protecting the residents of Donbas” and even “uniting the Russian people” — and then Putin and other senior Russian officials gradually began simply invoking the phrase “goals of the SVO” without elaborating further. Here are just some of those statements.
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Vladimir Putin:
The goal is to protect people who have been subjected to abuse and genocide by the “Kyiv regime” for eight years. To that end, we will seek the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine, as well as bringing to justice those who have committed numerous bloody crimes against civilians, including citizens of the Russian Federation.
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Vladimir Putin:
Punitive military operations were organized against the [self-proclaimed] Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic — they were blockaded and shelled with artillery. That is what is called genocide. Saving people from genocide is the primary goal of the special military operation in Ukraine.
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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov:
One of the main goals of the operation is precisely the rescue of these [self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s] republics and the restoration of their statehood within the borders of 2014 — that is, the borders enshrined in the constitutions of both the Luhansk People’s Republic and the Donetsk People’s Republic.
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov:
Our goal does not include regime change in Ukraine. That is an American specialty. They do it all over the world. […] We want to ensure the security of people in eastern Ukraine so that neither militarization nor nazification threatens them, and so that no threats to the security of the Russian Federation emanate from Ukrainian territory.
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Vladimir Putin:
At the root of all this, really, is the policy of our geopolitical opponents aimed at tearing Russia apart — historical Russia. Divide and conquer — that is what they have always tried to do, and what they are trying to do now. Our goal is something different — it is the unification of the Russian people.
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Vladimir Putin:
Everything we are doing today, including in the special military operation, is an attempt to end this war [in Donbas, which had been going on since 2014]. That is the meaning of our operation. And to protect our people who live there, on those territories.
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Vladimir Putin:
They [the goals] change in accordance with the current situation, but in general, of course, we will not change anything — they are of a fundamental nature for us.
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Vladimir Putin:
There will be peace when we achieve our goals. They are not changing. I will remind you of what we have spoken about — the denazification and demilitarization of Ukraine, its neutral status.
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Dmitry Peskov:
[Our goals are] demilitarization, denazification, ensuring the security of people living in those regions that have already become Russian regions, shielding them from direct strikes and effectively saving their lives.
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Vladimir Putin:
The enemy’s goal was to make us nervous, to make us scramble, to redeploy troops from one sector to another and to halt our offensive on key axes — above all in Donbas, the liberation of which is our primary goal.
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Vladimir Putin:
The outgoing year has been a landmark one in achieving the goals of the special military operation. Thanks to the professionalism and courage of our soldiers… Russian forces firmly hold the strategic initiative along the entire line of contact.
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Dmitry Peskov:
What matters most to us is achieving our goals. Of course, we prefer peaceful means to achieve those goals.
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Vladimir Putin:
We will, without question, see this through to its logical conclusion — to the achievement of the goals of the special military operation.
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Vladimir Putin:
The outgoing year has been an important stage in fulfilling the objectives of the special military operation. The Russian army has seized and firmly holds the strategic initiative along the entire front line… […] This year, more than 300 settlements have already been liberated, including large cities that the enemy had turned into fortified strongpoints packed with long-term fortifications.
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Vladimir Putin:
We know how this will all end, but we will not make any public statements to that effect — we will simply work toward and strive for the goals we have set for ourselves, carrying out the tasks that stand before us. I am certain they will be achieved.
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Vladimir Putin:
Our troops will do everything to achieve the goals of the special military operation.
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Cover photo: Sergei Pivovarov / RIA Novosti / Sputnik / Profimedia
‘SVO’
‘Special military operation’ — the term Russian authorities use for Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine.