MOSCOW, September 22. /ITAR-TASS/. The crisis in Ukraine was caused by the blatant interference of the United States and the European Union in its affairs, Russian Permanent Representative to the OSCE, Andrei Kelin, said on Monday.

“The Ukrainian crisis was provoked by the US and EU interference. It was the United States that grossly but customarily interfered in Ukraine’s internal affairs, breaching the Helsinki principles and the UN Charter,” Kelin said at the Warsaw Human Dimension Session of the 2014 OSCE Review Conference.

“It was the United States that encouraged the state coup in Kiev in February and the punitive operation in the east of the country, which left 3,000 people killed and made hundreds of thousands flee their homes,” the diplomat said.

“Washington is now trying to shift responsibility for this to others, including Russia. The Ukrainian crisis has not only exposed but also increased systemic problems in the field of European security and humanitarian dimension,” Kelin said.