Russia Warns Against Escalating Violence in Ukraine

At LAT, "Russia vows it will not allow breakup of protest-racked Ukraine":

MOSCOW -- Russia will not allow the breakup of neighboring Ukraine and, if invited, is ready to mediate the violent conflict between street protesters and the leadership of the former Soviet republic, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday.

“Russia will do its utmost to help prevent [the breakup of Ukraine] and to stabilize the situation,” Lavrov said at a news conference in Moscow, without elaborating on what actions Moscow might take. “Ukraine is our neighbor, partner, friend and brother and there can be no two opinions.”

With the divisions in Ukraine rooted in part over the question of whether to tie the country’s future more closely to Russia or the West, Lavrov lashed out at Western Europeans he accused of interfering in Ukraine's internal affairs by supporting protesters in the streets of Kiev, the capital.

“We would prefer some of our European colleagues not to behave so unceremoniously in connection with Ukraine's crisis, when members of a number of Europe's governments without any invitations dashed to [Kiev’s Independence Square] to take part in anti-government demonstrations in the country with which they have diplomatic relations,” he said. “It is simply improper and it is heating up the situation.”

The protests in Kiev began in November when President Viktor Yanukovich refrained from signing a trade and association agreement with the European Union. They had largely been peaceful in recent weeks but erupted into violence Sunday.

Dozens of people have been injured on both sides in three days of clashes between protesters and riot police. Grushevsky Street, which houses government buildings, has been turned into a virtual war zone, with hundreds of protesters hurling bricks, cobblestones, flares and Molotov cocktails, and several thousand police responding with stunning noise grenades, rubber bullets and water cannons.

Lavrov argued that Europeans would not tolerate such violence in their nations.

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