Russia’s territorial aims in Ukraine have expanded, the foreign minister says.

Russia’s ambitions in Ukraine now stretch beyond the country’s eastern territories, the country’s foreign minister said Wednesday, a departure from the Kremlin’s earlier claims that it is not waging a war of imperial expansion.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told RIA Novosti, the Russian state news agency, that Russia’s territorial aims have changed to include a swath of the south as peace negotiations have failed and the situation on the ground has changed. Read more

@nytimes