Russia considers Ukraine as their "kin"- Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov

(News 1st); Russia is not planning to infringe upon the interests of Ukrainian citizens, considers them as "kin," and believes that Russians and Ukrainians can be stronger and more successful together, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

"We treat the Ukrainian people, their language and traditions with unvarying respect. We are not going to infringe upon the interests of Ukrainian citizens, with whom we share not only common history or spiritual and cultural kinship, but also blood and family ties," Lavrov said at the 49th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva via a video link.

"Millions of people from Ukraine live in Russia nowadays," Lavrov said. "They are kin to us. We have always been and will be far stronger and more successful together," he said.

"It is most important now to stop attempts by the timeservers who have illegally seized power to betray the Ukrainian people's fundamental interests and pursue a course toward turning their country into an anti-Russia as their modus vivendi to please the West," Lavrov said.

"The hysterics observed now in NATO and the EU only confirm that it's precisely the establishment of an anti-Russia that has been and is the objective of the U.S. and all its allies mustered by Washington," he said