The Russian Foreign Ministry advised Europe to encourage Kiev to abandon aggressive militaristic rhetoric, said on Friday, April 23, the official representative of the department Maria Zakharova on the official website of the department.
“What kind of“ restrained reaction ”and, all the more,“ steps towards a settlement ”by the Kiev authorities can be spoken about in conditions when weapons and equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are actively being drawn to the contact line, and the suburbs of Donetsk are daily bombarded with Ukrainian shells and mines, which kill residents, including children? ” – noted Zakharova.
She stressed that Russia has exactly the same mediatory attitude to the settlement of this conflict as Germany and France.
“Perhaps, instead of reckless support of the Ukrainian authorities, the leadership of Eurodiplomacy should start encouraging Kiev to abandon its aggressive militaristic rhetoric and, finally, to faithfully fulfill its obligations to resolve the conflict in accordance with the Minsk Package of Measures and the agreements at the Normandy format summits” – added the representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
According to her, there is no doubt that the European Union actively indulges the nationalist policy of the Kiev authorities, which continue a large-scale and aggressive infringement of the rights and freedoms of the Russian-speaking population in Ukraine, and also revive the “cave” ideology of neo-Nazism and right-wing extremism.
“We expect that Brussels will stop spreading crude anti-Russian disinformation and, guided by the long-term interests of the European peoples, will begin to proactively seek ways to normalize Russian-EU interaction,” Zakharova summed up.
On April 20, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to meet anywhere in Donbass. Putin responded by saying that the primary tasks of the Ukrainian leadership should be meetings with the leadership of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR). He added that he is ready to receive the President of Ukraine in Moscow to discuss bilateral relations.