Kremlin: Russia has no plans to annex Donbas
Annexation of the Donbas is not on the agenda, said Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, commenting on the words of Russian propagandist Margarita Simonyan, who called on the Kremlin to "take the Donbas home."
Peskov noted that Simonyan is a media manager and journalist and cannot express Moscow's official position on this issue.
"Such a topic is not on the agenda. You know that Russia takes a very responsible position in the efforts to help Ukraine to solve its internal Ukrainian crisis. Russia takes a consistent responsible position to protect the interests of the Russian-speaking population in the Donbas and will continue to protect the Russians," Putin's spokesman said.
He specified that the issue of Donbass's accession to the Russian Federation is neither directly nor indirectly on the agenda.