KIEV, August 16. /TASS/. Kiev has no plans of severing diplomatic relations with Russia, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin said in an interview with Austria’s Der Standard newspaper on Tuesday.

"We are maintaining diplomatic relations," Klimkin said. "We have millions of Ukrainians in Russia of whom we should take care. If Russia decides so [to break off diplomatic relations] then this will be its responsibility."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday Moscow was not interested in severing diplomatic ties with Ukraine, stressing the need to ensure stability and implement the Minsk peace deal.

Last week, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said it had thwarted attempted terrorist attacks in Crimea plotted by Ukraine’s Defense Ministry’s main intelligence directorate. A group of saboteurs was spotted in the small hours of August 7 near the city of Armyansk, close to the border with Ukraine. Two Russian servicemen were killed in the process of detaining the terrorists. The aborted terror attempts were designed to target Crimea’s critical infrastructure and vital facilities, the FSB said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin slammed the Ukrainian special services’ attempted sabotage plot in Crimea as irrational and criminal. The real purpose was to distract public attention from Ukraine’s current domestic quagmire, he added. Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko has dismissed Moscow’s accusations saying this was a provocation.