Russia repeats claim it didn't attack Ukraine, saying it was forced to defend to pro-Kremlin regions

• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday that Russia was in Ukraine to defend two pro-Kremlin regions.
• "We are not planning to attack other countries, and we did not attack Ukraine," he said.

Russia's foreign minister repeated his country's false claim that it did not attack Ukraine, saying instead that it had launched the "special military operation" to defend two pro-Kremlin regions.

After meeting Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Antalya, Turkey, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia was being threatened and had to defend the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, Sky News reported.

Russia recognized the pro-Kremlin, Ukrainian territories of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states on February 21, three days before Russian troops entered Ukraine. The designation gave Russia a justification to invade Ukraine.

"We are not planning to attack other countries, and we did not attack Ukraine," Lavrov said.

The meeting was the first time top diplomats from the two countries met since Russia's invasion.

The talks were aimed at "Russia ceasing its hostilities and ending its war against Ukraine," a Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson tweeted Wednesday. But both Kuleba and Lavrov said they were no closer to arranging a cease-fire, with Kuleba saying that Russia wanted Ukraine to surrender, which Ukraine was unwilling to do.

Russia has repeatedly denied attacking or invading Ukraine, instead referring to its actions as a "special military operation."

Russian President Vladimir Putin said last month that he was trying to prevent a genocide against ethnic Russians and aiming for the "demilitarization and de-Nazification of Ukraine."

There is no evidence of genocide in Ukraine, and the country's democratically-elected president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is Jewish.

Insider's live blog of the Russian invasion is covering developments as they happen.