REUTERS

"The Budapest Memorandum contains one single legal obligation regarding Russia, the U.S. and the UK – it stipulates that no force with the use of nuclear weapons will be applied to Ukraine, which is free from nuclear weapons. It is the only legal obligation of 1994, enshrined in the Budapest Protocol," Lavrov said, answering the question of an UNIAN correspondent on where exactly it was written in the Minsk agreements and the Budapest Memorandum about the need to "send people to solve military issues in Donbas", as well as "to protect Russian-speakers" in Donbas and Crimea, as earlier stated by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Lavrov added that there is a political commitment in this document, which lies in the fact that "we all need to respect the sovereignty, territorial integrity of the Ukrainian state."

Read alsoLavrov demands direct talks between Kyiv and Donbas"All of this is absolutely consistent with our position. The only thing, which is not written in the Budapest Protocol, is Russia's commitment, or anyone else's, to agree with the results of an anti-constitutional armed coup," Lavrov said.

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According to him, the "authors" of the revolution proclaimed the fight against "Russian language and Russian people in Crimea."

Lavrov, in particular, referred to the leader of the Right Sector Volunteer Corps, Dmytro Yarosh, who had allegedly stated the need to "expel or kill the Russians from Crimea."

"Under the leadership of such personalities [Yarosh has never occupied any government posts in Ukraine - UNIAN], no one is obliged to accept these changes," he said.

Read alsoMFA Ukraine exposes Russia's violations of Budapest memorandum on 22nd anniversary of signing"Having undermined the agreements of February 20, 2014, being unable to fulfill the commitment to form a national unity government under the guarantee of France, Poland and Germany, the Ukrainian coup plotters grossly violated the provisions of the Budapest Protocol on the need to faithfully respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Ukrainian state," Lavrov said.

UNIAN memo. The signatory states of the Budapest Memorandum, among which was Russia, in addition to the non-use of nuclear weapons, pledged to "respect the independence, sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine" and "refrain from the threat of force or its use against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine, and pledged that none of their weapons will ever be used against Ukraine except in self-defense or otherwise in accordance with the United Nations Charter."