MOSCOW: Head of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s second CIS department Alexey Polishchuk said special military operation will end once threats related to NATO’s colonisation of Ukraine are eliminated, reports TASS.

The Russian diplomat told this in an interview with the news agency TASS.

The special operation is running as planned, he added. “All its goals will be reached,” Polishchuk stressed.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address on February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics, he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation. The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans to occupy Ukrainian territories and the goal was to demilitarize and denazify the country.