Referring to Ukraine’s crisis, Lavrov said at a news conference following talks with his Slovak counterpart Miroslav Lajcak that the EU is impeding joint efforts to provide assistance in overcoming the deep domestic crisis of Ukraine.

"We still insist on the first unconditional step: a halt of the so-called anti-terrorist operation, which is turning into actions aimed at terrorizing citizens of Ukraine just for their political convictions," Lavrov told a press conference in Moscow on Monday.

Russia insists on an international investigation into the events in Odessa under the aegis of the UN and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Lavrov said.

"We are outraged with what happened in Odessa and how the Ukrainian authorities treat this, we are outraged with the attempts to lie about the reasons of what happened and attempts to hide the truth," Lavrov said.

Moscow supports holding round tables between the Ukrainian authorities and opposition and proposes to expand the number of participants, Lavrov added.

He also noted that Russia's ties with the European Union and NATO need a "rethink" in light of deep differences over Ukraine.

"These relations require a substantial rethink, and together with our partners from the EU and NATO nations we are trying to conduct an analysis in order to better understand where we are, where our assessments coincide and where we disagree, and what to do to bring those relations back, those documents that form the basis for Russia and NATO cooperation, as well as European Union and Russian engagement."

NJF/NJF