VIENNA, May 6 (RIA Novosti) – Russia believes the tensions that have “ripened” in Ukrainian society were used by Western countries to advance their own interests, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday.
“Contradictions in Ukraine have ripened, but those contradictions were actively used by our Western partners both in the EU and in the US in order to advance their own unilateral interests, forgetting about the interests of the entire Ukrainian people,” Lavrov said.
“This is obvious for us, and we're not hiding that. We discuss it with our American and European partners. They confirm that is not the way [the situation] is. But if it’s not, anything is possible,” he added.
The remarks by the Russian foreign minister came during a news conference on the second day of the Council of Europe’s ministerial meeting in Vienna.
Lavrov said Moscow regretted that the West was not ready to recognize the interests of the people in Ukraine’s southeast as a legitimate participant in the national dialogue.
“In that case let us avoid separating Ukraine between East and West, and combine our efforts and help start the dialogue that leads to the approval of practical steps to the implementation of all accords and statements, but the practical steps can be carried out only by Ukrainians [themselves],” Lavrov noted.
Russia earlier condemned Kiev’s decision to launch a military operation against the restive regions in the south and southeast of the country and urged an immediate withdrawal of Ukrainian troops, as well as the start of all-inclusive national dialogue to de-escalate the situation in the crisis-hit country.
