No plans to invade Ukraine, says Russian representative to UN

Russia does not have any plan to invade Ukraine, as there is no sense in this, Russia's permanent representative to the UN office in Geneva, Gennady Gatilov, said in an interview with Sputnik.

"Western officials and analysts are probably at a loss when decoding quite unambiguous statements of the Russian leadership. So I will repeat: Russia does not and did not have plans to invade Ukraine. There is no motive or geostrategic goal in this," Gatilov said.

"And the most important thing, [not] even a hint at common sense, since Russia has always advocated equal, mutually beneficial and pragmatic relations with all countries, not only with neighbours. [Foreign] Minister [Sergey] Lavrov has already said very clearly: 'If it depends on the Russian Federation, then there will be no war.' What other additions are needed?" the permanent representative said.

Kiev and Western states have recently expressed concerns about the alleged increase in "aggressive actions" by Russia near the borders of Ukraine. Russia has repeatedly rejected such accusations, stating that it does not threaten anyone and is not going to attack anyone, and that claims about "Russian aggression" are used as a pretext to deploy more NATO military equipment near Russian borders.