WINNIPEG

Russia's foreign minister: Kyiv's NATO ambitions derail peace process in eastern Ukraine

The Associated Press Published Thursday, September 4, 2014 5:05AM CST

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov meets with Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland in Moscow on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2014. (AP / Ivan Sekretarev)

Text:

MOSCOW - Russia's foreign minister has warned that Ukraine's NATO ambitions are threatening to derail peace talks in eastern Ukraine.

Russia and Ukraine said Wednesday they are working on a deal to halt months of fighting in eastern Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin spelled out a seven-point plan for ending hostilities and expressed hope for a breakthrough at talks in Minsk, Belarus, on Friday.

But Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in televised remarks Thursday that statements by senior government officials in Kyiv that Ukraine will be seeking to join NATO are "a blatant attempt to derail all the efforts" to seek a peaceful solution in Ukraine.

Pro-Russian separatists have been fighting government troops in eastern Ukraine since mid-April in a conflict that the U.N. estimates has killed nearly 2,600 people.