U.S. should press Kiev to fulfil responsibilities: Russia

MOSCOW - The United States should use its influence to make the Ukrainian authorities fulfill their commitment of the Geneva agreement on Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday.

Larvov, after a meeting with visiting his Lebanese counterpart Gebran Bassil here, told reporters that Moscow believed the main condition to solve the ongoing crisis in Ukraine was to "stop illegal actions of current Kiev authorities which should understand their responsibility for everything agreed upon in Geneva on February 21 and April 17."

"It was said clearly there that there should not be any violence. Use of army, and moreover with backing on radical nationalists, against people is an absolutely unacceptable form of violence," said the top Russian diplomat.

The U.S. "can and should use" all its influence over Kiev, he added.

Meanwhile, Lavrov suggested that the Ukrainian authorities should consider demands from its regions and reach a compromise with its people.

"This is a way for Ukrainians to determine their own fate and build up statehood without impact from the outside," he added.

Earlier in the day, when delivering a speech at the Global University Forum here, Lavrov urged Kiev to "make the first steps towards a national reconciliation in Ukraine."

According to him, the U.S. and the European Union attempted to stage "another color revolution" in Ukraine, which was an operation for "an unconstitutional change of regime."

The Russian diplomat also said that the West was using Ukraine as a pawn in a political game, while Washington did not support the setting up of a government of national unity in Ukraine.

On April 17, Russia, Ukraine, the U.S. and the European Union signed off in Geneva an agreement calling for all sides of the conflict to refrain from violence.