Kremlin: Russia is 'protecting' Europe from aggression
Maria Zakharova, official spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said on Facebook that Russia is “protecting Europe from aggression”.
“After Poroshenko said that Russia supposedly intends to capture Mariupol and Berdyansk, one can paraphrase his utterance with certainty: it is Russia that is protecting Europe from the barbarism, tyranny, terrorism, aggression and militarism that loom over our entire continent,” Zakharova wrote.
At the same time, in an interview for the program “Moscow. The Kremlin. Putin” on the sidelines of the G20 summit, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was asked whether the “provocation” in the Kerch Strait may have been synchronized with the cancellation of the meeting between Putin and US President Donald Trump. He responded:
“I am not a supporter of conspiracy theory or of any conspiracy concoctions. But recently there have been too many coincidences, when the day before significant events, some kind of provocation takes place, which is then used to fuel sanction rhetoric”.
In an interview with the German Funke Media Group, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that Russia is trying to obtain a ground corridor from the occupied Donbas to occupied Crimea by capturing Mariupol and Berdyansk.
“Moscow is trying to acquire a ground corridor from the occupied Donbas to occupied Crimea, by capturing Mariupol and Berdyansk. If certain politicians don’t stop flirting and dancing with Putin, no one should dismiss the threat that the scale of Russian aggression will grow,” Poroshenko warned.