US must explain CIA chief’s Kiev visit: Lavrov

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has called for explanation from Washington over reports of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director’s recent visit to Ukraine’s capital city of Kiev.

According to the reports, Lavrov during a press conference in Moscow on Monday said: “We would like, in particular, to understand the meaning of these reports about CIA Director [John] Brennan’s recent visit to Kiev.”

He noted that the US government has so far failed to come up with “reasonable explanations” about the controversial visit during the weekend.

His remarks came two days after reports from a source in the Ukrainian parliament suggesting that the CIA director had visited Kiev and held a meeting with the country’s leaders, as well as with representatives of Ukraine’s security agencies.

Russia’s top diplomat also accused the West of “off-the-scale” hypocrisy over the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.