MOSCOW. June 23 (Interfax) - Moscow demands that Washington put an end to the recruitment and transportation of U.S. citizens to the conflict zone in Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
"The Russian Foreign Ministry has been monitoring information about the recruitment and transportation of U.S. citizens to the zone of hostilities in Ukraine and the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics with the connivance of the White House and U.S. security services," ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in her commentary published on the ministry website.
"This is a matter of the activity of the Ukrainian embassy in Washington, which contravenes the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and leads to the direct recruitment of fighters to the so-called International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine," she said.
"We view the connivance of the U.S. authorities with such activity as yet more proof that Washington has no interest in settling the Ukrainian crisis, but instead seeks to fuel the conflict, aiming at a strategic defeat of Russia," the commentary said.
"Therefore, we strongly demand that the U.S. side put an end to the activities of the Ukrainian embassy, which do not just create a direct threat to the life and security of U.S. citizens and openly contravenes its diplomatic status, but is also fraught with unpredictable, severe international consequences," Zakharova said.