BERLIN, May 23. /ITAR-TASS/. Germany’s Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, has warned against trying to hinder the approaching presidential election in Ukraine on May 25.

“All attempts to make (the election) impossible or to delegitimise it should be stopped,” Steinmeier said in Berlin on Friday, adding that “only a legitimately elected president… could ensure political and economic stability in all parts of the country”.

“This also corresponds to the interests of (Ukraine’s) neighbouring states,” the foreign minister said.

Russian Deputy Defence Minister Anatoly Antonov described Ukraine’s “unconstitutional coup d’etat and violent seizure of power” as the worst-case scenario of “a colour revolution”.

“The country is on the brink of a civil war,” he told journalists on Friday.

The speaker of Russia’s State Duma lower house of parliament, Sergey Naryshkin, said that the legitimacy of the Ukrainian presidential election on May 25 was highly questionable.

“But it is possible that the election will become a step towards future dialogue,” he told Rossiya-24 television channel during the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg. “I hope that the election will give an impetus to dialogue between the parties.