Kyiv, June 24, 2014 – Russian Federation should leverage all its influence to incite terrorist and militants acting in Donetsk and Luhansk to implement ceas fire and leave Ukrainian territory. It was the emphasis Danylo Lubkivsky, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine made during his briefing in Ukraine Crisis Media Center. «Yesterday there were no negotiations in Donetsk, a meeting being a part of the process of resolution to the situation in Donbas took place. Representative of Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko, the former President Leonid Kuchma, participated in the negotiations. Participation of the Russian Federation ambassador in the process of peaceful settlement is important. At the same time, the scope of this meeting is limited to our understanding of the steps Russia is to make in order to settle the situation. In particular, to distance itself from the terrorists, use any influence needed to incite terrorists to lay down arms and have Russian terrorists leave Ukrainian territory», – stated the deputy minister.
A representative of acting head of OSCE, Heidi Tagliavini, Ukrainian ex-president Leonid Kuchma, Russian ambassador to Ukraine Mykhailo Zurabov, politicians Viktor Medvedchuk and Oleh Tsaryov, rebel leaders of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic took part in the meeting held in Donetsk regional administration. Based on the results of the meeting, agreement on seizing the fire has been reached. According to Danylo Lubkivskyi, it is one of the main priorities at the moment: «Today our priority is to provide possibility for implementation of ceasefire, leverage all the instruments to avoid threat to Ukrainian citizens. At present there is certain time for armistice, it expires on June 27. It means that Ukrainian state creates all the possibilities for peaceful regulation of this process. We will be observing the process. It truce is disrupted, if Ukraine and Ukrainian citizens remain endangered by Russian militants and terrorist, we will definitely need the next round of international increased stringent pressure on Putin’s political regime and Russian Federation».
Representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that President Poroshenko’s peaceful plan aims at three major tasks: save people’s lives, provide for stable conditions of safety and life in the affected regions and save the state’s sovereignty and territorial integrity from aggression.
Commenting on Russian plans for the future of Crimea, Mr. Lubkivskyi emphasized that Ukrainian position remains unchanged and Crimea is a temporarily occupied territory: «We have a plan for Russia how to act in Crimea: to free Crimea from its occupation, draw off its troops, from the border with Ukraine included. It will make it possible to normalize our relations. No other plan is possible» – emphasized the deputy minister.
