Lavrov: No Need for Mediators between Russia and Ukraine
Kiev and Moscow continue blaming each other for violating the ceasefire agreement. Both sides refuse to take responsibility for a missile attack on a residential suburb of Mariupol on Saturday, which left 30 people killed and 93 people injured. On this occasion January 25 was declared national mourning day in Ukraine.
The reaction of the international community to this accident came very soon. As it was expected, several Western officials made statements about tightening the sanctions against Russia. On the Maiupoli accident the President of the US Obama declared that the US will continue cooperating with its Western partners to tighten the sanctions against Russia, reports The Independent.
Concerning the sanction the spokesman of the Russian President Peskov said, that the West "instead of strengthening the pressure on those, who refuse any dialogue and the peaceful settlement of the conflict, resumes the policy of "economic blackmailing" against Russia,’- informs Russia Today. "There is such an impression that Europe’s sanctions against Russia are of chronic nature,"- said Lavrov.
The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini in her turn called Russia to stop its military, political and financial assistance to the "separatists" to avoid the deterioration of the EU-Russia relations. The German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a phone conversation with Russia’s President Putin urged Moscow to use its influence and make the "separatists" to implement the requirements of the Minks agreement, reports The Telegraph. Moscow in its turn called Europe to put pressure on Kiev to continue the talks.
Israel has expressed its readiness to mediate between Russia and Ukraine, however, the Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov refused this proposal saying that there is no need for mediation between the two countries, as in reality there is no Russia-Ukraine conflict.