MOSCOW, January 15. /TASS/. Secretary of Russia’s Security Council Nikolai Patrushev has said that Ukraine could lose its statehood, if Kiev continues to pursue its current policy.

"The continuation of such policy by the Kiev authorities can contribute to the loss of Ukraine’s statehood," he said in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta. According to Patrushev, "the Kiev authorities are doing everything to split Ukraine, implementing the West’s scenario to break Ukraine away from Russia, while ignoring the interests of its own people."

"As a result, the country was de facto split. The population of the western regions does not trust natives of southeast considering them to be supporters of the ‘Russian world." In southern and eastern regions, Kiev’s power is ensured, to a large extent, at the expense of moral and physical pressure exerted on the local population by radical nationalists," Patrushev stressed.

"Because of that, anti-government sentiment in the aforementioned regions is mounting, with the public rift exacerbated by the inter-church standoff," he added.