Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Russia is open to having an "honest, equal" dialogue with foreign states on the crisis in Ukraine, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday, insisting that Russia bore no responsibility for the situation.
"We are open to an honest, equal and objective dialogue with our foreign partners to find a way to help all of Ukraine come out of the crisis," Lavrov said at a televised news conference in Moscow with his Tajik counterpart, in a clear reference to the West.
"We are ready to continue dialogue on the understanding that this dialogue should be honest and partner-like, without attempts to portray us as one of the sides in the conflict."
But Lavrov challenged Western accusations that Russia was to blame for the crisis and implied the West had wanted to challenge Moscow's authority in the post-Soviet sphere.
"The crisis has been created artificially, out of geo-political motives," he said.
He added: "This crisis was not created by us (Russia). All the more, it was created in defiance of our repeated and longstanding warnings."
Tensions between Moscow and the West have surged in recent days as pro-Moscow forces took over the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which then announced plans to hold a referendum on becoming part of Russia.
Lavrov has held talks with Western officials including US Secretary of State John Kerry, but without reaching any breakthrough.
The Russian foreign minister launched a new attack on the Ukrainian government that took power after the overthrow of president Viktor Yanukovych and said terror and chaos were reigning in the country.
"The so-called temporary government is not independent and depends very unfortunately on radical nationalists who carried out an armed seizure of power," Lavrov said.
"There is no kind of de facto state control for law and order," he said.
Lavrov said far-right radicals of the Pravy Sektor (Right Sector) group were "calling the tune" and accused them of using methods of "terror and intimidation".
He said that dialogue should be aimed at making the Ukrainian authorities abide by the February 21 agreement signed by the then-opposition with Yanukovych, who has now taken refuge in Russia.
"This document is not being fulfilled," lamented Lavrov.
He said that agreements on the disbanding of "illegal armed groups" and the de-blocking of roads and official buildings had not been implemented.
Meanwhile, the stipulation in the agreement for there to be a government of national unity had not been fulfilled.
"Instead what we see is a government of victors," he said.