MOSCOW, November 11. /TASS/. The turmoil in Ukraine has attracted many mercenaries and felons who are using the current situation as a safari for hunting Russians’ lives, Russia’s ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said in an interview the daily Izvestia published on Friday.

"It is no coincidence - and no one in the West makes a secret of this - a large number of mercenaries and felons of all sorts have gathered in Ukraine. In fact, they are using the current situation as a kind of safari, hunting for Russian lives," Antonov said.

He stressed that Ukraine was being used by the collective West as an instrument of struggle against Russia as a great power with a centuries-long history.

"Obviously, there is a desire to turn us into a third-rate state, or still worse, to split it up into a dozen fragmented principalities," Antonov summed up.