Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has denied any connection between the absence of Russian troops in southeastern Ukraine and the sanctions recently imposed on Russia by the West, saying, however, that Moscow does not share "the well-known methods" of U.S. diplomacy.
“If statements claiming that there are no Russian troops in the southeast [of Ukraine] because of sanctions reflect a wish to send some signal that the U.S. is acting resolutely and achieving results, we are aware of such methods, but we are not using them,” Lavrov told reporters after a meeting with Chilean Foreign Minister Heraldo Munoz on April 30.
The Russian foreign minister offered his comments in response to media remarks made by U.S. Secretary General John Kerry.
The absence of Russia’s Armed Forces in southeastern Ukraine effectively serves to refute Washington’s claims of Russian saboteurs and special service officers allegedly “flooding” the southeast of Ukraine, Lavrov said.
“We have never taken any measures bowing to pressure from anyone. We have been acting in accordance with the national interests of the Russian Federation, on the basis of international law and taking full account of the situation both in Crimea and as far as our position on the events under way in the southeast of Ukraine is concerned,” he said.
