US envoy: Russia intends to dissolve Ukraine from world map

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations says there should no longer be any doubt that Russia intends to dismantle Ukraine “and dissolve it from the world map entirely.” Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the U.N. Security Council Friday that the United States is seeing growing signs that Russia is laying the groundwork to attempt to annex all of the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk and the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, “with the goal of holding sham referenda or decree to join Russia.” She said Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov “has even stated that this is Russia’s war aim.”