BASEL, December 4. /TASS/. Ukrainian drama could have been prevented back a year ago, but Brussels rejected the idea of trilateral talks by Russia, Ukraine and the European Union and supported a government coup, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a meeting of the OSCE foreign ministers on Thursday.

“The Euroatlantic region is experiencing a fundamental crisis and a way out has to be searched for,” Lavrov said. “The way into the future can be mapped out only through joint efforts and on the basis of deriving the correct conclusions from the lessons of the past.”

“The experience of the past few years indicates that unilateral methods and refusal to recognize the mistakes that have been made will reach nowhere,” Lavrov said.

“A year ago, when we met in Kiev, the Ukrainian drama still could have been avoided and a balance of Ukraine’s legitimate interests in the East and in the West identified,” Lavrov said. “However, Brussels then emphatically rejected a trilateral process involving Ukraine, the European Union and Russia and as a matter of fact demanded that Kiev should discard its liabilities under the CIS Free Trade Zone treaty.

“Our Western counterparts went as far as supporting the anti-constitutional government coup, they turned a blind eye on the split of society and on violent actions by ultra-nationalists, who proclaimed the intention to make the entire Ukrainian people follow their ideology,” Lavrov said.

In particular, he pointed to the fact that the February 21 agreement, which proclaimed national unity as its goal was “trampled underfoot literally the next day. “There began an onslaught on the rights of minorities, in the first place, Russians, and on their language, religion and heroes and on the European values and culture,” he said.

“Another attempt to overcome the Ukrainian crisis and achieve national unity was made with the adoption on April 17 of the Geneva statement by the European Union, Russia, Ukraine and the United States, in which Kiev pledged to instantly launch “an inclusive transparent and accountable” constitutional reform with the participation of all regions and political forces of the country,” Lavrov recalled. “This has not been done to this day. Incidentally, the Swiss presidency suggested converting the Geneva Statement into a road map plan of the OSCE, but the United States, the European Union and Ukraine refused.”.