MOSCOW, March 1. /TASS/. The consistent planting of neo-Nazism and massive attacks on rights and freedoms in Ukraine are taking place with the connivance of the US and its allies, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in a video message during a session of the UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday.

"All these massive, systemic attacks on rights and freedoms, the consistent planting of neo-Nazism are taking place with the connivance of the US, Canada, the EU states, which are arrogantly declaring themselves ‘standard of democracy’ <…>," the top diplomat noted.

Lavrov pointed out that the West started to turn a blind eye to the developments in Ukraine in February 2014, "when the radicals carried out an unconstitutional coup d’etat, breaking the agreement with the then president of Ukraine that was reached under EU guarantees."

The Russian foreign minister noted that the residents of the eastern Ukraine, who did not accept the coup, "were accused of terrorism, although they did not attack anyone." "[The Kiev forces] <…> bombed their cities using aircraft, artillery and multiple rocket launchers. They destroyed civilian facilities, schools and hospitals. They killed civilians," Lavrov said. According to him, the Kiev leadership also imposed an economic, transport and food blockade against Donbass and got away with all of this, while international structures were limited to sterile calls for peace.

On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin in response to the appeal of the leaders of the republics of Donbass, decided to conduct a special military operation. The Russian leader stressed that Moscow’s plans do not include the occupation of Ukrainian territories, while the main goal is the country’s demilitarization and denazification, hence, Russian poses no threat to civilian population.