MOSCOW, June 28. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Wednesday said some countries could be sending their military officers to Ukraine under the guise of mercenaries.

"There are suspicions that a whole number of countries are sending their career military officers there under the guise of mercenaries. There are instructors working in Ukraine, and they are career military officers for sure. Yes, they are not at the engagement line apparently, but there’s a great number of specialists, instructors there," he said on Channel One television.

The minister said that during the uprising in Kiev, which ended in a coup, agents of the CIA and other US special services were present in the office of the Ukrainian Security Service.

Lavrov also rejected Western statements that NATO is not at war with Russia, saying they "sounded ridiculous and pathetic because grown-up people are telling blatant untruths." The minister, referring to the goals of the special military operation, namely the denazification of Ukraine, added that Russia in Ukraine was at war "with the West and with Nazism, which has been reborn in that country and which is being actively cultivated <...> by Western colleagues.".