Russia must stop supporting ‘terrorist activities’ in Ukraine: Kiev

Ukraine will demand that Russia cease its support for “terrorist activities” on its territory, the Ukrainian foreign minister said Wednesday on the eve of crunch talks with Moscow, the US and EU.

“Our main demand is to de-escalate the situation in eastern Ukraine. We want Russia to withdraw the troops from the eastern borders of Ukraine. We want Russia not to support terrorist activities in eastern Ukraine,” Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsya said after he landed in Geneva for Thursday’s meeting.

Kiev has accused Moscow of dispatching barely-covert special forces to Ukraine’s Russified east and south to marshall pro-Russian militants into confronting authorities and destabilising the country.

Russia has also massed tens of thousands of troops on Ukraine’s border.

Deshchytsya set out a string of other demands for Moscow as tensions between the two neighbours soared.

“We want them to confirm that Crimea is an integral part of Ukraine. We want Russia to withdraw troops from Crimea and to deny the decision of the parliament to allow the Russian government to use Russian troops on the territory of Ukraine,” he said.

Russia seized the Russified Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in March, weeks after the ouster in Kiev of pro-Moscow Ukrainian leader Viktor Yanukovych following four months of pro-European protests.

Moscow repeatedly has argued that it needed to protect ethnic Russians from Ukrainian nationalists, but Kiev rejects that.