MOSCOW, January 17. /TASS/. US officials have disseminated a batch of total disinformation about Russia allegedly preparing a provocation in order to justify "the so-called Russian invasion of Ukraine," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a press conference on Monday.

"Let’s not forget what the American officials said about the very subject of the so-called Russian invasion of Ukraine. For instance, by spreading complete disinformation that we are preparing a provocation all but attacking the Russian-speaking population in Donbass in order to obtain the pretext for that very invasion," he said in response to a question by TASS, pointing out that White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki noted that this had already happened in 2014.

The Russian top diplomat stressed that the current tragedy of modern Ukraine "indeed began in 2014," however, it was not the result of some provocation on the part of Russia but the result of a state coup that was "supported and even to a substantial degree organized" by the US.

"And nowadays, undoubtedly, Ukraine is being externally governed by the US," he went on. "Washington is quite capable of simply forcing the Kiev regime to finally implement the Minsk Accords. This subject was also discussed during the Putin-Biden summit last June in Geneva. There we saw and heard the US’ understanding of the essence of the Minsk Accords. Above all, [it lies] in Donbass’ special status. And I hope that our American colleagues will occupy themselves with this," the Russian foreign minister added.