The Guardian reports,"the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has accused Ukraine of violating an accord reached in Geneva last week aimed at averting a wider conflict.
"Steps are being taken – above all by those who seized power in Kiev – not only that do not fulfil, but that crudely violate the Geneva agreement," he said on Monday.
Lavrov also told a news conference that a deadly gunfight on Sunday near Slavyansk, a Ukrainian city controlled by pro-Russian separatists, showed Kiev did not want to control "extremists".
"The authorities are doing nothing, not even lifting a finger, to address the causes behind this deep internal crisis in Ukraine," he said".
At least three people are thought to have been killed in the shootout, shaking an already fragile accord reached last Thursday betweenRussia, Ukraine, the US and the European Union.
The authorities in Kiev described the incident in the early hours of Sunday as a "crude provocation" staged for Russian TV. They said some of the details of the shootout were so implausible as to be ridiculous. Ukraine's intelligence service said its Russian military counterpart, the GRU, had staged it with help from criminals. The death toll and the allegiance of those involved were hard to confirm independently.
The Geneva agreement called for an immediate end to violence in Ukraine, where western powers believe Russia is fomenting a pro-Russian separatist movement, an allegation Moscow denies.
The accord also called for illegal armed groups to stand down in a process to be overseen by Europe's OSCE watchdog.
However, separatists have shown little sign of leaving public buildings in largely Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine.
Lavrov said the Ukrainian authorities had failed to remove illegal protests from squares in Kiev, Ukraine's capital. "This is absolutely unacceptable," he said.
Washington has warned of stronger economic sanctions than those already imposed if Moscow fails to uphold the Geneva deal.
"Before giving us ultimatums, demanding that we fulfil demands within two or three days with the threat of sanctions, we would urgently call on our American partners to fully accept responsibility for those who they brought to power," Lavrov said.
He added that attempts to isolate Russia would fail because it was "a big, independent power that knows what it wants".
