MOSCOW, October 21. /TASS/. The ban on the Russian language in Ukraine and the idea of the country joining NATO are unacceptable and must be abandoned, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview for the MGIMO 80 documentary.

"The thing is the rights of the Russian-speaking population in Ukraine have been squashed. Laws banning education in Russian and the Russian-based media which operated in Ukraine and the Ukrainian media broadcasting in Russian have been adopted. Russian culture has been banned," Lavrov lamented. "In Kiev, separate regulations have been issued to cancel any cultural activities in Russian," he added, describing this reality and the intentions being declared by Kiev and the West to make Ukraine a NATO member as unacceptable.

"All these things must be realized and abandoned," Russia’s top diplomat emphasized.