MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Thursday, the US State Department released an annual human rights assessment report, titled Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2014, where it blames the regime of former president Viktor Yanukovych and armed militia in the self-proclaimed people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk for the majority of human rights violations in the crisis-hit country.
"The US cynically ignores large-scale blatant violations of human rights and the international humanitarian law by Kiev-led forces and armed neo-Nazi groups in Donbass," ministry's spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in a statement.
In February 2014, then-Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych was ousted after months of major protests in Ukraine's capital, Kiev. The coup resulted in the escalation of the Ukraine crisis.
"It is another attempt to conceal the fact that the current humanitarian and human rights catastrophe in Ukraine is the result of an unconstitutional coup in Kiev in February 2014, which succeeded with direct support by the US authorities," Lukashevich stressed.
In March 2014, Crimea reunified with Russia, rejecting the new government in Kiev. Shortly after that, Kiev launched a military operation against independence supporters in the southeastern Ukrainian Donbas region who were unhappy with what they claimed was a coup-imposed government.
Since the escalation of the crisis, Russia's relations with the west have deteriorated, as the United States along with its allies accused Moscow of fueling the internal Ukrainian conflict. Moscow has repeatedly denied the allegations.
