European equity markets dipped over 0.5% while US index futures moved 0.3% lower following the latest comments from Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov. Lavrov said that goals of the "special military operation in Ukraine" have changed and Russia is no longer focused only on the so-called Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics. Instead, a number of other territories are now in focus of the Russian army. Moreover, Lavrov said that should the West supply Ukraine with long-range weapons, territorial interests of Russia will expand further. Those comments came after White House warned last night that Russia is preparing to annex more Ukrainian territories.
Lavrov's comments are not surprising as it was expected that Russia would try to take whole Ukraine instead of only separatists' republics in the east. Nevertheless, it is confirmation that the Russia-Ukraine conflict is far from over and will continue to impact markets. DE30 dipped from 13,350 pts to around 13,210 pts before recovering to 13,260 pts.
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Source: xStation5
