Russia offers to mediate Ukraine conflict

MOSCOW – Russia will not allow the breakup of neighboring Ukraine and, if invited, is ready to mediate the violent conflict between street protesters and the leadership of the former Soviet republic, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday.

“Russia will do its utmost to help prevent (the breakup of Ukraine) and to stabilize the situation,” Lavrov said at a news conference in Moscow, without elaborating on what actions Moscow might take. “Ukraine is our neighbor, partner, friend and brother and there can be no two opinions.”

With the divisions in Ukraine rooted in part over the question of whether to tie the country’s future more closely to Russia or the West, Lavrov lashed out at Western Europeans he accused of interfering in Ukraine’s internal affairs by supporting protesters in the streets of Kiev, the capital.

Dozens of people have been injured on both sides in three days of clashes between protesters and riot police.

The Interior Ministry said 163 police officers had been injured since Sunday, 80 of them hospitalized. Kiev health authorities said 122 protesters had been hurt and 40 of them hospitalized. Thirty-two protesters had been arrested, police reported.

The opposition demands early presidential and parliamentary elections, the resignation of the government, prosecution of the interior minister and the cancellation of recently adopted bills curbing human rights and freedoms, such as ones that prohibit protesters from wearing helmets and setting up tents in city squares and others that provide for an up to 15 years of imprisonment in connection with mass disorders.