It is in Russia's interests not to dismember Ukraine, but keep its status neutral, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

"It's in our interests not to divide Ukraine, it's in our interests to keep it neutral, primarily in a military-political sense," he said in an interview with the radio stations Ekho Moskvy, Govorit Moskva and Sputnik.

"We want Ukraine to be peaceful and quiet. To achieve that, we need to keep Ukraine unified and prevent it from being dismembered. Such tendencies have already appeared in some places in Europe, in the countries that once gave some of their territories to the current Ukrainian state after WWII," he said.