Official: US Fueling Crisis in Ukraine

The ongoing and violent crisis in Ukraine is being largely fueled by the United States, a top Russian diplomat charged on Saturday.

According to Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, peace within the warring country would be more likely if negotiations were left to Russia and Europe. However, as he told Rossiya 1 channel’s news show Sergey Brilev’s News on Saturday: “We also have partners across the ocean – our American colleagues – who, according to a lot of evidence, still favor pushing the Ukrainian leadership towards the path of confrontation.”

Since the beginning of the year, upwards of 54,000 Ukrainians have become internally displaced, according to an estimate by the United Nations Refugee Agency released Friday. An additional 110,000 Ukrainian refugees have fled to Russia and other Eastern European countries to violence in eastern Ukraine, which continues to escalate despite a cease fire—which began last week and was extended until Monday after a Friday deadline passed without a peace deal.

“The rise in numbers of the past week coincides with a recent deterioration of the situation in eastern Ukraine,” UNHCR spokesperson Melissa Fleming told journalists in Geneva. “Displaced people cite worsening law and order, fear of abductions, human rights violations and the disruption of state services.”