Ukrainians from all around the country, the occupied Crimea included, supported sovereign unitary of Ukraine. This was the announcement Danylo Lubkivsky, Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine made during his media briefing in the Ukraine Crisis Media Center.
Deputy Minister emphasized that Ukrainian citizens made European choice and showed historic unity around the idea of independence and sovereignty: «Unique turnout of citizens at the elections is a sign of their readiness to protect their native country from any external or internal threat. As of today leading international organizations as well as dozens of countries in the world recognized the elections as free and democratic. The elections that took place are only an instrument for stabilization of the situation in Ukraine. Our country must become an example of democracy, national unity and efficiency. By electing a new president we start a new difficult work stage».
Successful and fair holding of pre-term Presidential elections also became possible owing to presence of more than 3000 foreign observers from the European Union, NATO, OSCE, the Council of Europe and other organizations at the voting stations. «We are peculiarly grateful to all the international observers who came to our country and witnessed the historic events, recognizing them having happened democratically and in compliance with world criteria and standards», – stated Danylo Lubkivsky.
Majority of Ukrainians, including citizens from the occupied Crimea, participated in the elections of the President of Ukraine. «Turnout was high: around 60% voters from all around the country, Crimea included, as well as from abroad cast their votes. 90% of voting districts were operational. Ukrainians lined up in front of polling stations and were not tired to stand there for hours to express their will. People voted for freedom, dignity and European future. Our nation have finally made a European choice», – deputy minister emphasized.
After the presidential elections we are to continue working at stabilizing all the spheres of Ukrainian life. Danylo Lubkivsky reminded that several important steps have already been made on this way: approval of a resolution on territorial integrity of Ukraine at the UN General Assembly session, signing political part of the association agreement with the European Union, finalizing the first stage of EU visa regime liberalization scenario.
Mr. Lubkivsky also voiced the fact of Ukraine is still suffering direct external attack and aggression on the part of Russia. He called upon international community to condemn Russian terrorists’ actions and make Kremlin stop this threat: «We have every ground to claim that Russian terrorists are directed to the Ukrainian territory immediately under Russian intelligence agencies’ control. Last night dozens of armed terrorists attacked the Ukrainian border in Luhansk region. Ukrainian citizens keep being attacked. Ukrainian film director Oleh Sentsov, detained in Crimea, has been kept captive since May 11.
Theater director Pavlo Yurov and cultural projects volunteer Denys Gryshchuk as well as other citizens of ours have been captive in Slovyansk since April. Our students are detained in the territory of Russian Federation without any reasonable basis.
Deputy Minister is convinced that the price of Russian aggression is self-isolation and economic loss: «Russia has been losing its reputation and international positions. By the estimates of Central Bank of the Russian Federation, net capital outflow amounted to 55 billion US dollars during the first quarter of 2014. European Central Bank’s estimate of capital outflow from the Russian Federation since the beginning of its aggression against Ukraine is 220 billion US dollars».
Watch video [icon icon=’Icomoon/icomoon-youtube-2′]
