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Ukraine must remain united — Lavrov

"We proceed from the understanding that Ukraine is our near neighbor and its people are fraternal," Russian Foreign Minister said

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov Anton Novoderezhkin/TASS

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov

© Anton Novoderezhkin/TASS

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MOSCOW, April 22. /TASS/. Ukraine must remain united, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in a live interview telecast by three radio stations on Wednesday.

"We proceed from the understanding that Ukraine is our near neighbor and its people are fraternal," Lavrov said. "We would like to see people on the other side of the border to whom we have a very friendly attitude live a good life. For that Ukraine must stay united."

"In order to keep Ukraine stable and friendly everybody should by all means avoid tearing it apart", Lavrov noted.

"For this the stubborn intention to preserve unitarianism and to push ahead with ukrainization must be dropped," he said.

"It is in our interests to not tear Ukraine apart, but to make it neutral in military-political terms," Lavrov said. "Its split will mean only one thing: NATO will go ahead with attempts to make Ukraine anti-Russian. We would like to see Ukraine united, but to stay united the commitment to decentralization must be honoured.".

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Foreign policy Ukraine

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