MOSCOW, May 26. /TASS/. The affair of former Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko is in no way related with the Minsk Accords, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said.

MOSCOW, May 26. /TASS/. The case of former Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko is in no way connected with the Minsk Agreements, Russian Foreign Ministry’s official spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a briefing on Thursday.

"This is a big myth which is being promoted that the Savchenko case and exchanging her for two Russians either corresponds or goes in line, represents an organic part of implementation of the Minsk Agreements. This is a myth, this is not so in reality," Zakharova said. "The Savchenko case is not connected with the Minsk Agreements. Talking about the successful implementation of Minsk-2, there is only recipe here - direct dialogue between Kiev and Donbass," she added.

"Those statements that were made in Kiev yesterday are aggressive, they are far from creating a positive atmosphere which could facilitate, among other things, progress on implementing Minsk-2," Zakharova said adding that those statements were "aggressive and not wise."

"If the instance of exchange and the story that ended yesterday will be accompanied by such aggressive rhetoric, no one will benefit from it, of course. The issue is not the Russian side and implementation of the Minsk Agreements, the issue is Ukraine," Zakharova concluded.

On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to pardon jailed in Russia former Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko. On the same day, she was taken to Kiev.