Russia FM: Ukraine Crudely Violating Geneva Deal

Insists Pact Obliges Them to Disarm Right Sector

Western officials continue to accuse Russia of violating last week’s Geneva deal on Ukraine by not stopping public protests against the interim government, but Russia is finding just as much fault with Ukraine’s non-implementation of the pact.

Russia is arguing that the text’s call for the disarmament of “illegal” factions applies to the neo-Nazi Right Sector, which launched a weekend attack on the eastern protesters, violating the Easter Truce.

The eastern protesters, who weren’t a party to the deal to begin with, insisted that the deal can’t impose any requirements on them. Likewise, that other violent factions like the Right Sector’s militias aren’t being disarmed has them feeling justified in keeping their own arms.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused Ukraine of “crudely violating” the terms of the deal by refusing to disarm any of the other factions in the country, acting as though it was meant to exclusively apply to the protesters in the east. Of course, that’s how Ukraine always saw the pact, and it was inevitable that the two sides would dispute their conflicting interpretations.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.