Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said his talks with German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Monday discussed the possibility of restoring dialogue in the Normandy format in the wake of the recently foiled terrorist attacks in Crimea.
“We assessed the prospects and possibilities of resuming dialogue in the Normandy format,” Lavrov said adding that the recent intrusion attempt in Crimea by Ukrainian saboteurs could not but have affected the talks.
Lavrov said Russia has irrefutable evidence that Ukraine’s authorities had planned the act of sabotage for a long time with the goal of destabilizing the situation in Crimea.
“We have something in addition to what you see on television, the irrefutable evidence that this was the act of sabotage that had been planned for a long time by the Main Intelligence Department of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry and had the goal of destabilizing the situation in Russia’s Crimea,” he stressed.
Russia is taking extensive measures to prevent further sabotage attempts in Crimea, he said.
“Regardless of how our partners will be working with their friends in Kiev, we are following the President’s orders to take extensive measures to eradicate all such attempts to infiltrate our territory,” Lavrov said.
“We discussed the situation in Ukraine, which has raised serious concerns, and tasks for advancing a settlement to the crisis by synchronizing steps to implement the Minsk Accords, in particular, measures to ensure security in the regions and political reforms,” Lavrov said.