Russia has never set itself the goal of simply seizing territories, be it Crimea, Donbass or Novorossiya, but sought to protect Russians

Russia “has never set itself the goal of seizing any territories, but wanted to protect Russians,” said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, TASS reports.
“I want to emphasize once again: we have never said that we simply need to seize any territories. Neither Crimea, nor Donbass, nor Novorossiya have ever been our goal as territories. Our goal was to protect people, the Russian people, who have lived on these lands for centuries, who developed these lands, shed blood for them both in Crimea and in Donbass, created cities – Odessa, Nikolaev and many others, ports, factories, industry,” Lavrov noted.