MOSCOW, April 15. /ITAR-TASS/. European Union’s suggestions about Russia’s alleged involvement in armed standoff in the east of Ukraine are inadmissible, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

“It is high time for the European Union to realize that if it really tries to play a serious and positive role in the settlement of the Ukrainian interior crisis, than it must distance itself from biased approaches, based on the undeniable support of a certain conflicting party in Ukraine,” the statement said.

“Suggestions about Russia’s alleged involvement in the armed standoff in the eastern part of Ukraine, as well as attempts to openly interfere in Russia’s domestic affairs, including demands addressed to the Russian Federation Council (the parliament’s upper chamber) to ‘immediately revise these or those decisions’ are totally inadmissible,” the statement from the ministry added.

Earlier today, Russian President Vladimir Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov has dismissed claims about Russian military presence in eastern Ukraine as absurd.

 

Sanctions against Russia counterproductive

Russia’s Foreign Ministry has stated that any sanctions against Russia are unjustified and counterproductive. The ministry’s information and press department made this statement in connection with new decisions of the EU Council on the situation in Ukraine.

“We have to declare again that any sanctions against Russia are unjustified and counterproductive,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said. “Instead of trying to scare us with another set of sanctions, the European Union should concentrate on the joint search for a solution to the internal Ukrainian crisis," the ministry added.