UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) — Russia hopes the Ukrainian authorities will do everything possible to avoid escalation of conflict following a foiled Kiev plot to conduct a series of attacks in Crimea, Russia’s permanent representative to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin said on Thursday.
"I hope the Ukrainians will be prudent enough to do everything for no escalation to happen," Churkin stated in a press conference after a special UN Security Council meeting on Crimea.
On Wednesday, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said that it had eliminated a spy ring organized by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry in Crimea, detaining both Russian and Ukrainian nationals involved in preparing terrorist attacks on the peninsula. An FSB officer died as a result of a firefight during the arrest.
Russian President Vladimir Putin called the incidents a "very dangerous game," adding that Ukraine's authorities had resorted to terrorism instead of looking for peaceful solutions to the conflict in the east of the country.
Crimea became part of Russia after almost 97 percent of those who voted in a local referendum on the issue in 2014 supported the move.
