Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, during his visit to the 201st Russian military base in Dushanbe, spoke about the plans of Western countries to divide Russia and Ukraine. He stated that this would not happen, according to the website of the Foreign Ministry.

According to the minister, official Kiev was “nurtured” by the United States “in a purely Russophobic way, following the precepts of the infamous American political scientists that it is necessary to “do everything so that Ukraine will never be together with Russia again.”

“We have no doubts that these plans will not come true,” he said.

The diplomat also pointed out that Western states are no longer just hatching plans for the Russian Federation, but openly announce them.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia's geopolitical opponents began to "brainwash" the inhabitants of the post-Soviet space and, in particular, Ukraine.

He also said that after the collapse of the USSR, Moscow tried for years to build fraternal relations with Kiev, supplying energy resources and giving loans “almost for free”.