MOSCOW, April 14. /ITAR-TASS/. Western hypocrisy over Ukraine is blown out of proportion, Russia's Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov said in a statement on Monday.

Sergei Lavrov recalled that Moscow was striving for a plausible reaction from the West to the developments in Ukraine for quite a while, but there were only appeals to Russia to refrain from interfering into Ukraine’s domestic affairs in response.

The minister stressed that those who encourage Kiev's actions in applying force against protesters must be held responsible. "The decision to apply military force is an extremely dangerous development. Those, who encourage such actions in Kiev should be held responsible to the full extent," Sergei Lavrov said.

The minister of foreign affairs also pointed to the fact that  there was no response from the West yet to Kiev's intention to use army against protesters in South-Eastern Ukraine.

 

Russia interested in an integral, united, friendly Ukraine

Sergei Lavrov noted that there were no GRU or FSB in Ukraine. “We do not interfere in Ukraine’s domestic affairs. There are no Russian agents, neither GRU, nor FSB,” the minister said. He assured that Russia was for an integral and united Ukraine. “Russia is interested in an integral, united, friendly Ukraine, where all citizens live in peace, exercise their rights, have the possibility to normally interact with their neighbors,” Lavrov said.

“It is possible to achieve this through a complete constitutional reform,” he added. “The case in hand is that all Ukrainians should be equal in their rights, there would be no subhumans, who are forced to hear daily insults and tolerate humiliation from neo-Nazis,” the minister said.

“Russian-speaking residents in the south and east of the country felt betrayed by those authorities that spoke about freedom, equal rights for all Ukrainians, but haven’t even stirred a finger to start a responsible dialogue with the South-East until the South-East stated that it would not tolerate this situation,” Lavrov said.

“Only in recent days, some actions have been taken, but still these actions were spoiled by the decision to apply force in full extent, including army units,” the head of Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated.

 

Cooperation prospects in settling the Ukrainian crisis undermined

Answering to a question about the prospects of the quadrilateral meeting between Russia, USA, EU and Ukraine scheduled for April 17, Sergei Lavrov explained that applying force against protesters in South-Eastern Ukraine would substantially undermine the prospects of cooperation in settling the crisis. “We have already touched upon this issue, in particular, on public, we spoke about this with (US State Secretary) Kerry, with European colleagues, with (acting Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine) Deshchytsia. We have clearly stated that applying force against the protesters would substantially undermine on the whole the prospects of cooperation in settling the Ukrainian crisis,” Lavrov said.

Meanwhile, according to the minister, the USA did not offer any sensible explanation regarding reports of CIA chief's visit to Kiev.

Lavrov added that Moscow was drawing attention of the global community to the situation with journalists in Ukraine, but western countries kept quiet. “The situation with journalists in Ukraine proves the hypocrisy and double standards of the West, to which we should get used,” Lavrov stressed.