All news

Russian diplomat comments on Kiev’s readiness to 'accept a couple of Russian regions'

According to Maria Zakharova, "one ‘Russian region’ already was part of Ukraine once and it didn’t like it being there"
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova Alexander Ryumin/TASS
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova
© Alexander Ryumin/TASS

MOSCOW, December 2. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has commented on Kiev’s statement on its readiness to "accept a couple of Russian regions."

"One ‘Russian region’ already was part of Ukraine once and it didn’t like it being there," she said in an interview with the National News Service internet portal commenting on Ukrainian European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Minister Dmitry Kuleba’s pronouncements.

Speaker of the Russian State Duma lower parliament house Vyacheslav Volodin said earlier that "nationalism and oppression of small peoples may drive a number of regions out of Ukraine." He said this after the Ukrainian delegation had tried not to let speak Ruslan Balbek, a member of the Russian State Duma from Crimea, at the 12th session of the United Nations Forum on Minority Issues in Geneva. After that, Kuleba said that not a single region would ever quit Ukraine and expressed readiness to accept Russian regions as part of Ukraine.