MOSCOW, February 22. /TASS/. European and US colleagues will never be content until they use every possibility for the "punishment" of Russia, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday.

"We understand that now our colleagues are seeking to put all the blame for the breakdown of the Minsk agreements on Russia. Our European, American, and British colleagues will never stop and rest content until they use all their possibilities for the so-called punishment of Russia. They are already threatening with possible hellish sanctions, or, as they say, ‘mother of all sanctions.’ We are already used to it," he said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 television channel.

According to Lavrov, sanctions will be imposed on Russia in any case. "In this connection, I would like to point, to my deepest regret, to the negative and provocative role of the European Union, which cannot be responsible for its words and actions," he said.

He recalled that before the state coup in Ukraine in 2014, the European Union, in the person of the German, Polish, and French top diplomats, undertook to act as a guarantor of agreements signed between the opposition and Ukraine’s then-President Viktor Yanukovich. "When on the following day the opposition broke this agreement as a matter of fact spitting on the EU representatives, the European Union had to put up with it and began to say that it was not a state coup but a part of a democratic process," Lavrov noted. "It’s a shame. When those who were supported by the European Union immediately came out with Russophobic initiatives, the European Union took it silently and called on these people to use force proportionally. Later, when the Crimeans stood up against attempts at seizing their region by force, the European Union blamed everything on Russia, relieved, as I thought."

For the eight years ever since Moscow has been trying to draw Europe’s attention, practically every day, to the fact that Kiev "openly holds them in contempt, doing nothing, moreover, publicly declaring that it would not implement the Minsk agreements."

The Russian top diplomat stressed that the European Union has done nothing to make Kiev implement the Minsk agreements. "Moreover, the EU began to publicly claim that as a matter of fact, Russia is a party to the conflict and Kiev is not obliged to speak directly with Donetsk and Lugansk, but should speak with Russia, since nothing depends on them (DPR and LPR - TASS)," he noted, describing such statements as outrageous.