Situation in Ukraine
Zakharova said that it seems that Ukrainian authorities are not interested in an investigation into the Odessa massacre.
On May 2, 2014, pro-Kiev demonstrators blocked anti-government protesters in Odessa's House of Trade Unions and set the building on fire by hurling Molotov cocktails inside. Forty-eight people died in the incident and more than 250 were injured.
Syrian Crisis
Saudi-backed opposition group, the High Negotiations Committee (HNC) attempts to undermine the Syrian peace process in the framework of the talks in Geneva by publicly accusing Moscow and Damascus, Maria Zakharova said. The HNC's statements are alarming, she added.
According to Zakharova, the HNC "organized in Geneva a series of public actions to discredit the Syrian authorities and Russian Aerospace Force's actions in Syria" with the assistance of "external sponsors." These accusations included traditional cliché like "Assad is to blame for everything" and "Russia is killing women and children." At the same time a representative of Ahrar ash-Sham militant group was the one who accused Russia of military crime, she added.
Moreover, Zakharova commented on Pentagon's plans to deploy additional 250 military personnel, including special forces, to Syria.
She reminded that US policy in the Middle East should be more coherent as earlier Washington said that there would be no US soldiers in Syria.
UK Foreign Office Report on Human Rights Record in Russia
She said that this report is a "clear example of hypocrisy and is detached from reality."
Moscow believes that London should aim to solve own issues, not Russia's, she said, adding that this report amounts to interference in the country's internal affairs.
"This report is certainly an example of enormous hypocrisy. Unfortunately, this is not a special case. This is hypocrisy that has been lifted by London to the level of state policy," she said at a briefing.
She added that only those with decent reputations can take on teaching roles. "And, objectively speaking, London's [reputation] is heavily stained."
'Russian Threat'
She emphasized that Washington is using an "illusory Russian threat" to Europe as a pretext ramp up defense spending.
"Russophobia is just business," the Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman said.
Zakharova recalled an article in the US media, reporting that US lawmakers plan to quadruple defense budget to strengthen European security, while the so-called "Russia's potential aggression" was named as one of the main issues on the agenda of a committee of the US House of Representatives.
Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict
Armenian presindet in an interview to Bloomberg that if there are not security guarantees in the region, he would not return to talks on the issue.
The situation in Nagorno-Karabakh shows that the parties "need to show restraint in their statements," Zakharova said. "The top priority is to de-escalate the situation to avoid new aggression," she said.
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict began in 1988, when the autonomous region sought to secede from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. The region proclaimed independence when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. The sedition triggered a war that lasted until a Russia-brokered ceasefire was signed in 1994.
