ANKARA, February 13. /TASS/. Moscow would welcome Ankara’s efforts to encourage Kiev to implement its commitments under the Minsk agreements, Russian Ambassador to Turkey Alexey Yerokhov said in an interview with Turkey’s Turkiye newspaper, which came out on Sunday.
"We believe that the key differences between Russia and Ukraine stem from the non-implementation of the Minsk agreements by Kiev. If our Turkish partners can exert influence on the Ukrainians and push them toward implementing their liabilities, it will be only welcomed. We pay credit to the determination of our Turkish partners to take efforts to deescalate the situation," he stressed.
When asked to comment on the differences between NATO and the EU on Ukraine, the Russian diplomat noted, "probably, such difference do exist, and not only on Ukraine, but also on the topic of international security in general." "It is difficult to coordinate approaches with 30 partners. But I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to dwell on this topic. You’d better ask NATO and the EU about that, although they will probably be more prone to speak about Russia’s ‘aggression,’ ‘threat,’ and so on," Yekokhov noted.
The West and Kiev have recently been echoing allegations about Russia’s potential invasion of Ukraine. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov castigated these claims as "empty and unfounded", serving as a ploy to escalate tensions, pointing out that Russia did not pose any threat whatsoever to anyone. However, Peskov did not rule out the possibility of provocations aimed at justifying such claims and warned that attempts to use military force to resolve the crisis in southeastern Ukraine would have serious consequences.