OTTAWA, January 19. /TASS/. The Russian Embassy in Ottawa expressed its bewilderment at a statement by Canada’s Foreign Minister Melanie Joly about an alleged war between Ukraine and Russia, resulting in the deaths of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers on the "eastern front".

"The comment posted on the Twitter account of Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Melanie Joly on January 18th that "almost 4,500 Ukrainian soldiers have lost their lives in the war against Russia on the eastern front" evokes nothing but our utmost bewilderment," the Russian diplomatic mission maintained in a statement. "Such language on behalf of a member of the Canadian cabinet distorts reality and does not contribute to efforts aimed at stabilizing the situation or restarting the inter-Ukrainian peace process based on the Minsk accords."

The embassy noted that "the Ukrainian "soldiers" mentioned by Joly are a part of a punitive military crusade led by Kiev against its own citizens in the country’s East."

"The Russian side expects that Canada and other Western partners of Ukraine will no longer turn a blind eye to the numerous crimes perpetrated by the Kiev regime, which is waging a war against its own people that has resulted in thousands of civilian victims. The only way forward towards a peaceful resolution to the conflict is to bring Kiev back to the negotiating table with the representatives of Donetsk and Lugansk and to its unconditional compliance with the "Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements," the diplomatic mission concluded.

On January 18, during a visit to Kiev, Joly tweeted about the alleged deaths of Ukrainian soldiers on the "eastern front".