Seizure, Bloodshed Could be Aims behind Russian Embassy Attack: Lavrov
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - There are indications that “physical seizure” and bloodshed were the aims of the attack on the Russian embassy in Kiev, Russia's foreign minister told journalists.
“From our diplomats' point of view, the aim of the attackers was to physically seize the embassy building. There are also grounds to believe that they wanted bloodshed,” Lavrov said.
The leading players in the attack on Russia’s embassy were “fighters from Azov Battalion, created and financed by oligarch Igor Kolomoisky," who was appointed by Kiev authorities as governor of Dnepropetrovsk, Lavrov said.
Russian Ambassador to Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov believes the attack was thoroughly planned, RT reported.
“In the conditions in which we (Russia) and Ukraine [have] lived for the last 20 years, of course there was no question that the embassy here should meet the same safety requirements as in Iraq,” Zurabov told NTV channel. “But it looks like now we will have to reconsider our approach.”
According to Russia’s envoy to Kiev, there were two groups of “well equipped” young people between 25 and 30 years old who took no active part in the violence but were “absolutely ready to storm.”
“They had baseball bats, metal rods, axes. Had they entered the territory of the embassy, I think we would not have avoided victims,” he said.
Sergey Lavrov called the aggression “disgusting,” adding that the violence faced by Russian diplomats is “good reason” for “our Western partners”to think about how Kiev's ruling regime is using “inherited” following the protests at Independence Square (Maidan) this winter.
As for Ukrainian acting Foreign Minister Andrey Deshchitsa using the offensive language addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin, it was “beyond the bounds of decency,” Lavrov said, calling the protest outside the embassy “bacchanalia.”