BERLIN, November 2. /TASS/. Western countries could have taken more reasonable action in building relations with Russia amid a crisis in Ukraine, Germany’s former Chancellor Helmut Kohl said in his new book quoted by the German Frankfurter Allegemeine Sonntagszeitung on Sunday.

The West’s decision to abandon the G8 format and meet in June as G7 without Russia came under specific criticism and was mentioned as a “decisive and also depressive” factor, the newspaper wrote.

“As a result, the West, Russia and Ukraine must take care that not all that we once achieved is lost,” the newspaper cites an abstract from the book that will be officially presented on Monday.