Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov: US Has ‘Excessive Influence’ in Ukraine
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iStock / 360 / Thinkstock(MOSCOW) — Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed the United States has “an excessive influence” on the actions of Kiev authorities, describing America’s impact on the ongoing crisis during an interview with television network RT.
“When you receive daily calls from John Kerry, who is saying what you should do, and when you realize how far the U.S. is from Ukraine and how much they are agitated, it appears that indeed they direct this process to a large extent,” he said.
He went on to say that anti-terrorist operations were tied to visits from high-level American officials.
The U.S. has an impact “not on the country but on the regime, which took power in Kiev,” Lavrov added, and “they act much more openly and without any remorse, if one compares them with Europeans, who act more covertly.”
On Wednesday, the Obama administration denied accusations from the foreign minister that claimed the U.S. is funding or running military operations in Ukraine.
“I think many of the claims he made in his interview are ludicrous and they’re not based in facts of what is happening on the ground,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
Lavrov warned that Russia would not back down and said the country could retaliate against Ukraine if it continued operations against pro-Russian militants. Any attacks on Russians in the country would be considered an attack on Russia itself, he said.
Psaki called his statements “counterproductive and inflammatory,” explaining that the foreign minister’s comments don’t reflect a plan on the Geneva agreement recently signed by Ukraine, the European Union, the United States, and Russia.
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