Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said taking the Ukrainian Donbass region was an "unconditional priority" for Moscow.
Lavrov said it was a matter of pushing the Ukrainian army and battalions out of Donetsk and Luhansk, which Moscow recognizes as independent states. Lavrov referred to a "liberation" of the Donbass from the "Kiev regime."
Moscow's Foreign Ministry published a transcript of Lavrov's comments from an intervew with French broadcaster TF1 Sunday.
In the remaining parts of Ukraine where Russia its conducting what it calls a "military operation," the residents themselves must decide on their own future, Lavrov said.
Such language could refer to holding controlled referendums to declare areas of Ukraine as independent republics like Donetsk and Luhansk.
Ukraine's government expects such a move could be in the works for the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, where a new pro-Russian administration is in charge.
