MOSCOW, March 25. /TASS/. Relations between Moscow and Kiev continue to deteriorate and Ukraine is to blame, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a review of the country’s foreign policy and diplomatic efforts in 2020.
"Russia-Ukraine relations continued to deteriorate. There was some movement towards resolving a number of bilateral issues after a meeting between the two countries’ presidents that took place on the sidelines of the Normandy Four summit in Paris on December 9, 2019, but the process failed to gain momentum. The Kiev authorities continued to pursue a policy of confrontation, deliberately destroying the remaining ties with Russia, particularly by terminating bilateral agreements in various fields," the document reads.
The Russian Foreign Ministry noted that Russia-Ukraine trade had dropped to $9.9 bln, falling by 13.4% compared to 2019. "Under these conditions, Russia’s diplomatic efforts were focused on mitigating damage to the country’s interests and drawing the international community’s attention to the legal nihilism in Ukraine, particularly in the area of human rights and media freedom," the document said.
According to the ministry, the Contact Group’s decision on additional measures to ensure the ceasefire in Donbass was an important part of efforts to resolve the domestic crisis in Ukraine. "The indefinite ceasefire declared in late July helped ease tensions in Donbass. At the same time, Kiev’s reluctance to implement the Minsk Agreements and calls for reviewing the accords made it impossible to achieve progress in other aspects, including the political one," the Russian Foreign Ministry stressed.