Following the signing of a ceasefire between pro-Russian rebels and the Ukrainian government, Russia’s ambassador to the EU Vladimir Chizhov gave his analysis of the situation at the euronews studio in Brussels.

euronews:
“Your excellency, what’s the position of your government vis-a-vis the ceasefire just announced? How can Russia help the ceasefire to be held?

Russian ambassador to the EU Vladimir Chizhov:
“I can only hope it holds! The problem with previous attempts was that unfortunately those who declared ceasefire did not deliver. Either they did not really want it, but probably they were not able to. This is a problem that still remains, because some of the actual contingents fighting on the side of the Ukrainian government in the east, are evidently not really accountable to the government. They are so-called private security battalions, financed and directed by Ukrainian oligarchs.”

euronews:
“Russia always hoped or wanted for NATO to keep its distance from the region and from its borders. Now the the situation has created the necessity NATO to establish itself in the region.”

Chizhov:
“I would put this in a different way: the situation in Ukraine has probably created a pretext for NATO to proceed along this course. The situation has given the alliance a lease of life which it doesn’t really deserve.”

euronews:
“The episode with Crimea, and now the tension and crisis in Ukraine are not going to help the situation at all. I mean, you can’t expect Europe to say: ‘well fine – take Crimea, eastern Ukraine, and we’re just sitting and watching’.”

Chizhov:
“Crimea is a unique situation: it was an historical aberration rectified. We are not addressing any other situation in Europe or elsewhere which would be identical to the one in Crimea.”