U.S. and Western interference in Ukraine is the reason for the ongoing crisis in the country, a spokesman for North Korea’s foreign ministry said in an interview on Thursday.

Speaking with Russian state news agency ITAR-TASS in Pyongyang, the unnamed spokesman sided firmly with President Vladimir Putin, saying that the crisis was part of a plot to install a pro-Western government in Ukraine and to “isolate and weaken Russia”.

“The US bears the main brunt of responsibility for the current situation in Ukraine that resulted in numerous victims among civilians,” he said, describing the imposition of sanctions on Russia “unjustified”.

The goal