U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that Russia intends to dismantle Ukraine and "completely erase it from the map of the world". This is reported by Sky News.

Thomas-Greenfield told the UN Security Council that there are growing signs that the Kremlin is laying the groundwork for an attempt to annex all the eastern Ukrainian regions, as well as the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions "in order to hold bogus referendums" or decrees to join Russia.

She also reported that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov "even stated that this is Russia's military objective.

These comments came after Lavrov told U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken that the "continuous pumping" of U.S. and NATO weapons into Ukraine's armed forces had only "prolonged the agony of the regime in Kyiv, prolonging the conflict and increasing losses.