U.S. blames Ukrainian govt. for crisis, Moscow slams West for turning ‘blind eye’ on radicals

RT
February 19, 2014

An American diplomat has said that “the USA holds Yanukovich responsible” for the escalation of crisis in the country. Russia believes that this kind of stance actually encourages radicals on the streets of Kiev to provoke violence.

Protestors attempt to break through a police line in Kiev. Credit: jordibernabeu via Flickr

“From this moment on, the USA holds Yanukovich responsible for everything that happens in Ukraine,” US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey R. Pyatt told the Zerkalo Nedeli newspaper. The comment came after diplomats in Ukraine met with Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara.

Moscow believes that this accusatory position of the US could have, in fact, contributed to the escalation of violence Kiev has been witnessing, and, holding the president solely responsible for the crisis, is giving carte blanche to extremist radical forces out on the streets.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has issued a statement saying it considers the crisis “a direct result of the permissiveness policy exercised by those western politicians and European structures, who from the very beginning turned a blind eye to the aggressive actions of the radical forces in Ukraine.”
Twenty-five people were killed overnight in the most violent clashes yet to have occurred between security forces and protesters since the opposition took to the streets of Kiev in November 2013. Nine of the casualties are Ukrainian police officers, who died of gunshot wounds, as did the rest of the victims, the Interior Ministry reported.

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