Russian Foreign Ministry sees Ukrainian authorities as puppets void of sovereignty

MOSCOW. Feb 25 (Interfax) - The incumbent Ukrainian authorities lack sovereignty, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.

"The current authorities, the Kyiv regime, these puppets who have proclaimed themselves the rulers of this land by humiliating and debasing the people, are void of any sovereignty or intention to act in the interests of the Ukrainian people," Zakharova said at a press briefing on Friday.

"The only thing the Kyiv regime can do is follow instructions coming from across the ocean, and yet, to put it mildly, they don't always do this successfully and in the people's best interest," she said.

Russia hopes that the Ukrainian people "will free themselves of the oppression of the nationalistic government exploiting the country to the benefit of foreign actors and will start living full and sovereign lives, honoring the rights, freedoms, and interests of all their citizens, without dividing them based on their ethnicity, language, or religion," she said.