BUENOS AIRES, March 24. /TASS/. U.S. has long been trying to drive a wedge between Russia and Ukraine, Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks said in an interview published on Monday by the Argentine newspaper Pagina/12.

"The U.S. has long been trying to draw Ukraine into the Western orbit, to pluck it out of Russia’s sphere of influence as a minimum if not to make it a NATO member," Assange said.

Under the influence of bureaucratic ambitions, Europe has gotten involved in the misadventure, too, he believes.

"The U.S. and Europe have allocated billions of dollars to set up nongovernmental organizations, with the aid of which they promised to help Ukraine curb corruption," Assange said.

He recalled numerous warnings on the part of Russia that the attempts to bring Ukraine into NATO might trigger a civil war in that country.