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Foreign Ministry: US, EU violate commitments under Budapest memorandum

Russia's diplomatic service clears its stance in a statement on Ukraine issued on Wednesday

MOSCOW, March 19. /ITAR-TASS/. Actions of the US and EU, which connived openly at the state coup in Kiev, run counter to the Budapest Memorandum guaranteeing Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Wednesday.

“A question one would like to ask in this situation is how these guarantees, which the EU and the US made numerous references to during the disorders in Kiev, tallied with the threats of sanctions against the then Ukrainian leadership?” the Foreign Ministry asked. “Was it not an instance of economic coercion applied to a sovereign nation?”

“Or how should one treat a practically perpetual presence of Western emissaries on the Maidan?” the statement said. “And what is the way to qualify the U.S. and EU statements that they didn’t consider a lawfully elected president to be a legitimate partner anymore, while they were treating as partners the Maidan appointees who had been appointed contrary to all the Constitutional procedures?”

“All of these are the instances of how actively the US and EU connived at the state coup in Kiev and acted against the political independence and sovereignty of Ukraine in contravention to the Budapest memorandum provisions,” the Foreign Ministry said.