MOSCOW, January 27. /TASS/. Russia regards it as unacceptable even to think about starting a war with Ukraine, Alexey Zaitsev, deputy director of the information and press department at the Russian Foreign Ministry, said at a news conference on Thursday.
"We have said multiple times that our country isn’t going to attack anyone," he said. "We believe even the thought of a war between our peoples is unacceptable."
Russia is hoping that countries belonging to the Western-led alliance will refrain from meddling in Ukraine’s internal affairs, Zaitsev said.
"We are hoping that NATO countries will stop inflaming the conflict in the east of Ukraine and refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of that country, which should allow the Ukrainian negotiating sides to resolve their differences in a direct dialogue between them," he said.
The diplomat said that the events of last week demonstrated that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is contrived and fueled by certain countries. If it hadn’t been for the West, Russia and Ukraine would have settled their disputes long ago, he maintained.
Moscow is hoping that the next meeting of political advisers of the leaders of the Normandy Format countries, which is scheduled to take place two weeks later, will be able to disentangle the issues that have been stacking up for seven years and make progress on the issue of Donbass status, Zaitsev said.