Russia surprised by Western approach to crisis in Ukraine

Moscow is surprised that a number of European politicians rushed to support early presidential elections in Ukraine in contradiction with the agreement of a peace deal which envisaged such elections only upon completion of the constitutional reform, Russian Foreign Ministry said Monday. "Obviously, for such a reform to succeed, all political forces and regions in Ukraine should participate and its results should be submitted for a popular referendum," the ministry said in an online statement. Legitimacy of the work of Ukraine's parliament, or the Supreme Rada, also could be questioned, because its recent decisions have violated the humanitarian rights of Russian and other ethnic minorities, the ministry added. Calls to ban the use of the Russian language, to conduct lustration, to dissolve parties and organizations, closing mass media, tolerate neo-Nazi ideology are among the violations, said the statement. "Their aim is to suppress dissent in various Ukrainian regions by dictatorship and even terrorist methods," the ministry said, adding these developments pose threat to peace, social stability and security of the citizens. Moscow accused Western countries of not caring about the fate of Ukraine and of taking a one-sided geopolitical approach. "Willingly or not, the actions (of extremists) have been approved by some of our Western partners to conceal a scenario of the de-facto forceful regime change in Ukraine, with no desire to search for Ukraine-wide national reconciliation," Russia said. It is especially disturbing that Western powers are attempting to use the United Nations secretariat to justify such an approach, it added. "We strongly urge all those involved in the crisis in Ukraine to demonstrate maximum responsibility and not to let the situation degrade further, to bring it back onto the legal track, and decisively terminate power-thirsty extremists," Moscow said. More than 80 people have been killed and hundreds of others injured during anti-government protests, which began last November to back the country's European integration and turned violent last Tuesday.