MOSCOW, December 27. /TASS/. The developments in Ukraine were provoked by Western partners and NATO used them as a pretext to stop cooperation with Russia, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin said on Monday.

"Any cooperation with Russia was stopped by a NATO Council resolution of April 1, 2014. As a pretext, our Western partners used the developments in Ukraine, which were provoked by the West itself," he said.

"It was the United States and its allies who supported the bloody coup in that country and recognized the new administration that came to power illegally with the West’s support," he noted.