MOSCOW, August 21. /TASS/. Ukraine cannot in good conscience celebrate its Independence Day until Kiev ceases its neo-Nazi policy of eradicating all Russia-related things, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

"On August 24, Ukraine will celebrate its so-called Independence Day, marking the anniversary of the adoption of the Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine by the Supreme Council of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991. Today, we can confidently state that the celebration of this date is like dancing on the bones of Ukrainians," Zakharova said in a commentary.

She added that "the Kiev regime is fiercely continuing the genocide of its own people, seeking to eradicate their ethnic, linguistic, and spiritual identity." Zakharova therefore recalled that on the same day in 2024, Vladimir Zelensky signed a law banning the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

"We believe that Ukraine will be truly independent when Kiev comes back to the roots of its own statehood, ends its neo-Nazi policy of eradicating everything Russian, and stops the disgraceful discrimination against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church," Zakharova concluded.