The parallels between what is happening in Yemen and what took place in Ukraine this past year is noted by Russia's top diplomat, Sergey Lavrov. The US's approach to the two conflicts is a clear cut case of foreign policy double standards

GUATEMALA, March 27. /TASS/. The United States has followed double standards by providing support to Yemen’s fleeing president and by denying it to Ukraine’s former president, Viktor Yanukovych, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

"I have to use the hoary old cliche - the double standards are evident - although we wanted neither the developments in Ukraine nor the current events in Yemen," Lavrov told a news conference at the end of his visit to Guatemala.

"In both cases the movement must be towards national conciliation," he said.

Russia’s foreign minister is certain that the Ukrainian crisis could have been avoided if on February 22, 2014 Europe and the countries, which were witnesses when the Ukrainian opposition sealed a deal with Yanukovych, had exerted their influence and demanded immediate restoration of these agreements violated by the opposition afterwards.

"In Yemen the US acted diametrically opposite," Lavrov said.

Yemen’s President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi has fled the country after the Shia Houthi rebels had seized swathes of territory in the country and now stays in Saudi Arabia.

Yemen has been hit by a severe political crisis since August 2014. In late January 2015, the armed groups of Ansar Allah (Houthi rebels) forced the president and the government to resign.

Overnight to March 26, Saudi Arabia launched a military operation in the neighboring country and delivered air strikes at several Houthi positions. Pro-government forces regained control of the Aden airport on Thursday.