With Ukraine and Russia teetering on the brink of hostilities, Mr. Lavrov called on Western powers to “put aside geopolitical calculations” and put the interests of the Ukrainian people first.

“Those who try to interpret the situation as an act of aggression,” Mr. Lavrov said, “threaten us with sanctions and boycotts, are the same partners who have been consistently and vigorously encouraging the political powers close to them to declare ultimatums and renounce dialogue, to ignore the concerns of the south and east of Ukraine, and consequently to the polarization of the Ukrainian society.”

Reverting to his prepared text, Mr. Lavrov continued by saying that human rights were too important to be used as a bargaining chip. “As experience shows, military interventions on the pretext of civilian protection produce the opposite effect,” he said.

Mr. Lavrov was to hold a meeting later in Geneva with the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, who on Sunday sent his deputy, Jan Eliasson, to Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, to make a personal assessment of developments and then brief him on steps the United Nations could take “to support the de-escalation of the situation.”