Moscow says West encouraged Ukraine to use violence, reaping terrible harvest

Russia's foreign ministry said on Thursday that Western decisions to arm Ukraine had encouraged Kyiv to use force against the pro-Russian separatist territories in eastern Ukraine and were now reaping a terrible harvest.

The ministry said NATO's pledge to maintain its support for the "Kyiv regime" showed that it wanted the conflict in Ukraine to continue, the RIA news agency reported.

(Writing by Kevin Liffey; Editing by Catherine Evans)