MOSCOW, February 18. /TASS/. Ukraine is an unfriendly state for Russia and has turned into a project of Western countries, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday.

"Ukraine is a sovereign state, which is unfriendly for us, we have drawn this conclusion judging by those anti-Russian steps, which have been constantly dominating the Ukrainian leadership’s policy," the Kremlin spokesman said, commenting on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s statement at the meeting with the State Duma (lower house) factions on Wednesday.

According to the Kremlin spokesman, since the coup d’etat backed by the West, Ukraine has "turned into a project of these Western countries." "We see such elements," Peskov noted.

Peskov stressed that the Ukrainian state is facing "a very serious problem in its southeast and so far it cannot handle these problems or is reluctant to deal with them by implementing the Minsk Package of Measures."

Russian President Vladimir Putin told a meeting with parliamentary factions on February 17 that the crackdown on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project were explained by the attempts of some states to force Russia to "pay for their geopolitical project ‘Ukraine.’"