H.E. Mr. Maxim Peshkov:

I must make one point, that our troops, I mean our Black Sea navy ships, are based in Crimea on the basis of intergovernmental agreement between our two countries, Russia and Ukraine, first, and we have all rights to be there and to act as we are acting because no violations of this agreement took place. No additional troops were sent to Ukraine. I can only quote my president. He said that we do not intend to send additional troops Crimea if nothing extraordinary would happen. I hope that no extraordinary situations will occur in this region.

As for persons in uniforms, masks, etc., if one looks, for instance, to these films or videos from Maidan during all of the demonstrations, one can see persons in the same uniforms on both sides. These uniforms are used in the Ukrainian Army and in the Russian Army and they could be bought elsewhere, etc. All this speculation that some Russian military took part in these activities in Crimea is a complete lie and a falsification. That is all.

There was a question about why there were no discussions in the United Nations, OSCE and other structures dealing with human rights, etc. There were numerous questions. There were several sittings of the Security Council. We had numerous contacts on various levels, beginning from our Presidents and our Ministers for Foreign Affairs, with our partners in Europe and the United States. As the committee will be aware, there is, perhaps, everyday contact between my Minister, Mr. Lavrov, and US Secretary of State, Mr. Kerry, and we cannot say that no steps or proposals were made to each other.

Mr. Kerry was not happy that we did not agree with his proposals, why should we be? He is the boss or not. Why should we agree with proposals which we cannot accept? We have our own proposals. We sent them to Washington. Let them look, let us find some compromise.

The best compromise, the best way out, was the full fulfilment of the agreement between Ukrainian sides dated 21 February. Why was it not fulfilled?

Why were European Governments keeping silent? Why did they not press upon their clients from the opposition? We did our part of the work, in working with Yanukovych, and the compromise from his side was one of the results of his contacts with my President. Why did the Europeans not do the same thing with their friends? I do not know, but it was a real way out. Perhaps the point of no return has not yet been reached, but I do not know. I am working here, not in Kiev or Moscow, and I do not know all the details or all the nuances of the situation. It is not right to state that Russia was sitting and doing nothing. We have the same questions for our European colleagues and for Brussels - namely, what are you doing? To only criticise Russia is not a way out.