Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov offered up a bizarre reason for Russia invading the Ukraine, saying that the Kremlin is trying to prevent a separate war in the eastern European country.
"The goal of Russia's special military operation is to stop any war that could take place on Ukrainian territory or that could start from there," Lavrov said, according to a tweet posted on Monday by the Russian embassy in London.
The excuse is the latest justification for Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Russian forces attacked in the early morning hours of February 24, targeting key cities throughout the country with military strikes.
When he announced the invasion, Putin said he was seeking the "denazification" of Ukraine, a country whose democratically-elected leader, President Volodymyr Zelensky, is Jewish.
Putin has made other attempts to defend his invasion of Ukraine with baseless claims that genocide was being committed against ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine.
Russia has dubbed the invasion a "special military operation" and has criminalized sharing information about the war domestically, threatening dissenters with arrest and prison time.
This story is developing. Please check back for updates.