MOSCOW, November 9. /TASS/. Ukraine’s authorities talk about cutting off diplomatic ties with Russia to distract the citizens’ attention from the growing problems, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters on Thursday.
"This is not a new issue, it is sometimes brought back to life in Ukraine, and this is done directly when there is the need to distract the public attention from the growing problems," Zakharova said.
"There is a clear interrelation between how the issue is raised on severing diplomatic relations, introducing visa requirements and a lot of other things initiated by Ukraine’s so-called establishment and the attempts to somehow distract the attention of their own citizens from new problems that they are facing," she said.
The diplomat noted that Kiev does not think about the consequences of these steps for millions of Ukrainians, including those who are working in Russia.
"We continue monitoring the events in Ukraine," she stressed. "There is hope that common sense will prevail, but this hope is fading."
On November 8, some mass media said an amendment to the bill on Donbass reintegration had been introduced, envisaging the breakoff of diplomatic relations with Russia. However, the chief of the parliamentary committee on security, Sergey Pashinsky, said that the Verkhovna Rada had no powers to terminate diplomatic relations with other countries.
On Wednesday, Ukrainian lawmakers said after their meeting with the president that Pyotr Poroshenko did not back the idea of severing diplomatic relations with Russia.