Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has dismissed as propaganda talk of Russia using the Ukrainian crisis to incorporate new territories. He urged all parties concerned to stop demanding guarantees from Moscow and focus on de-escalation of the conflict.
“As for all sorts of theories that Russia would like to incorporate any new lands, they are nothing more than propaganda. I don’t even want to comment on this. The main task is to bring down tensions inside Ukraine. We see what’s happening there. It’s actually civil war. That’s what we all should think on,” Medvedev said in an interview with the Bloomberg television.
Asked whether Russia would annex or incorporate any parts of Ukraine and if it could guarantee that some other parts of Ukraine wouldn’t become part of the Russian Federation, the prime minister said: “First, we are under no obligation to guarantee anything to anyone, because we haven’t assumed any commitments to that effect. But we believe that the main task is to ease tension in Ukraine – not to guarantee anything to anyone but just ease tension.”
“Let our dialogue partners, including the European Union and the United States, guarantee something — that they won’t interfere in Ukraine’s internal affairs. Let our Western partners guarantee us that they won’t be dragging Ukraine into the North Atlantic Alliance, that people in eastern Ukraine won’t be deprived of an opportunity to speak Russian, that no crazy Right Sector will come and start slaughtering them,” Medvedev went on.
He stressed that “it’s not Russia that should guarantee anything, it’s the Ukrainian authorities that should guarantee its people that the situation in the east will be calm and that they won’t use heavy weapons, including tanks, warplanes and helicopters against its people.”
The Russian premier called for “talks to discuss the future, how the Kiev authorities and people in the east see it”, Voice of Russia informs.
