"From 2014 to 2019, Ukraine has been a dark page in the history of the EU’s foreign policy. It became downright dirty yesterday. And all that for the sake of some mythical rapprochement?" Kosachev said, commenting on a statement by Head of the European Union Delegation to Ukraine Hugues Mingarelli that the outgoing Ukrainian President, Pyotr Poroshenko, had changed the country in the previous five years, bringing it closer to the EU.

MOSCOW, May 16. /TASS/. Post-Maidan Ukraine has become a blight on the history of the European Union’s foreign policy, Chairman of the Russian Federation Council's (upper house) Foreign Affairs Committee Konstantin Kosachev wrote on Facebook on Thursday.

"Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine Hugues Mingarelli made a completely scandalous statement at a meeting with outgoing President Poroshenko," the Russian senator noted. Kosachev pointed out that following the Maidan events, the exchange rate of Ukraine’s national currency, the hryvnia, had plunged 75%, along with the population’s income. In addition, he pointed out that the country’s GDP and industrial production had dropped by 20%, while the number of labor migrants had risen to seven million. "Facing huge debts, the country is unable to support itself. As far as the level of corruption goes, Ukraine ranks among the global leaders. Not a single provision of the Minsk Agreements has been implemented and as a result, the war in the country’s southeast still rages on," the senior Russian senator emphasized.

In addition, Kosachev said that those responsible for gunning down protesters during the Maidan events and burning people alive in Odessa hadn’t been found yet, while the authorities did everything in their power to eliminate alternative points of view on Ukrainian history, encouraging only radical nationalist sentiment.

"And this is it. After the EU had granted him absolution, Poroshenko signed the language law, which is a terrible document from the standpoint of democracy and humanitarian norms," Kosachev stressed.