Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has accused his Ukrainian counterpart Dmitry Kuleba of lying “with a straight face” and compared his statements to those of Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels.
Speaking at a press conference in Moscow on Thursday, Lavrov recalled numerous public statements by the Ukrainian official that his country would not comply with the Minsk agreements – documents signed in 2014 and 2015 meant to serve as a road map for the resolution of conflict in eastern Ukraine.
As an example, Lavrov brought up Kuleba’s recent claim that Kiev would not engage in direct dialogue with the two breakaway regions Donetsk and Lugansk, since such dialogue is allegedly not covered by the Minsk agreements.
“Well, you see, this is definitely the school of Goebbels, and maybe even surpasses the art of the chief propagandist of the Third Reich,” Lavrov said. He explained that “to tell a lie with a straight face,” to reject internationally approved agreements and at the same time not to worry that the Western countries would pull you back, “is a quite comfortable position for the demagogues who are now defending their case, trying to rewrite the Minsk agreements.”
Earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Kiev has been refusing to implement the Minsk agreements and make peace with Donetsk and Lugansk, choosing to persecute Russian-speakers in Ukraine instead. Meanwhile, Kiev and its Western supporters accuse Russia of non-compliance with the Minsk agreements.
Over the last few months relations between Russia and the US-led NATO military bloc have deteriorated even more, with the West accusing Russia of allegedly planning to invade Ukraine.
Moscow has blasted these claims as “fake news” and, in a bid to de-escalate tensions, came up with a set of proposals on European security addressed to NATO and the US. The key provisions of these proposals, including a ban on NATO’s enlargement eastward, however, were immediately rejected by the bloc.