Lavrov: EU official statements on Ukraine diverge from backstage ones

 

The official statements by EU politicians about relations with Russia in the framework of the Ukrainian crisis more and more often diverge from the opinions they voice on the sidelines, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

 

Lavrov

 

“Sometimes there is a contradiction between what they say on the podium and what they tell you tete-a-tete, when no one else hears them,” he said in an interview with the Zvezda TV channel broadcast.

 

According to the Foreign Minister, “individually, the majority of European Union’s members say that it is a mistake “to seek confrontation with Russia because of Ukraine which ended up being a victim of EU’s policy which tried to make it choose”.

 

“They all say: let everyone calm down a little bit, the Minsk Agreements should be implemented, and then we will return to routine cooperation, strategic partnership” TASS cited Lavrov as saying.

 

However, gathering together and speaking from the podium, “they cannot repeat it,” he concluded.