U.S. actions that “disregard” Russian security concerns are a “root cause of the Ukrainian crisis,” North Korea’s foreign ministry said Saturday, in its first statement since Moscow launched a military invasion of its neighbor days earlier.

The commentary, which does not specifically mention the invasion itself, comes after the DPRK’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) criticized the U.S. earlier this month for “proliferating the wild rumor of ‘invasion of Ukraine.’”

“The root cause of the Ukrainian crisis also lies in the high-handedness and arbitrariness of the U.S. which has held on solely to the unilateral sanction and pressure while