MOSCOW, December 12. /TASS/. The West’s attempt to distort reality and shuffle off the blame on the events in Ukraine to Russia will fail, Russia's ambassador to the OSCE Andrey Kelin said on Friday.
The OSCE ministerial session in Basel on December 4-5 “succeeded in determining common approaches” despite the existing divergences on the assessment on the causes of the Ukrainian crisis, he said.
“The key element is that there is no military resolution of the crisis,” Kelin said.
“One should recognize that the government, which came to power in Kiev in February after the anti-constitutional coup d'etat, has another view. Instead of fighting corruption the Kiev government started the redivision of the spheres of interests. The people’s fair discontent led to nationalist moods. The Kiev authorities used brutal force, including heavy weaponry and even banned types, against the country’s east instead of a political dialogue,” he said.
“After the military adventure in the east failed, Kiev “turned to economic strangulation” in violation of the Minsk agreements that envision Donbass’ economic restoration, Kelin said.
“Our colleagues call all this bashfully a ‘complicated situation’. They try to shuffle off the blame to Russia for pushing Kiev to bomb cities and destroy the infrastructure. The attempt to distort reality will fail,” he said.
“We hope that our Western partners in cooperation with the Ukrainian leaders on whom they have decisive influence will join efforts to resolve the conflict by peaceful means,” Kelin said.