Lavrov Criticizes US For Not Leading Kiev To Peaceful Crisis Resolution

Moscow believes the United States are not doing their best to persuade Kiev into finding a peaceful solution of the crisis in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday.

"Frankly speaking, I believe that this disaster will sober up those who have very clearly placed their bets on a war with the refusal of all obligations in the political process and refusal from challenges voiced by Europe in order to see reason and hope for Washington’s support," Lavrov said during a live interview on Rossiya-24 television.

“We don’t sense any attempts by the US to send signals to Kiev for solution in negotiations," he said, adding it was unacceptable to expect Russia to be the only one to act on the situation.

“It's inadmissible to demand only from us to make the [independence supporters] to either reconcile with the fact that they will be killed or to surrender at discretion," Lavrov said.

The minister also criticized Washington for giving Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko a green light for the military operation against independence supporters in the country’s east, and called on the United States to review the approval.

“Bias means only one thing, that Washington decided to give Poroshenko the 'ok' to use military pressure on those who don’t agree with it. This is a criminal decision and I hope that it will be reviewed. We will at the least explain to all of our partners on the presidential and foreign ministerial level that this would mean that the West has taken on colossal responsibility for the fate of the Ukrainian state," Lavrov said in the interview.

Lavrov also said that in such countries as Iraq or South Sudan, the United States had forced the heads of states to reconcile with their opponents, but did not give this opportunity to Ukraine.

On Thursday, the Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the United States seemed to be pushing Ukraine to a civil war, adding that such policy was doomed to fail.

Since mid-April, Ukrainian authorities have been conducting a special military operation in eastern Ukraine to suppress the independence movement in the country. Hundreds of civilians have died in the conflict over the past months. In April, US government pledged $8 million in "non-lethal" military aid to Ukraine.

Moscow has repeatedly called on Kiev stop the violence immediately and resolve the conflict through a peaceful dialogue. (Cihan/Ria Novosti)