MOSCOW, October 25. /TASS/. Russia speaks in favor of establishing contacts between the Kiev government and representatives of the East-Ukrainian self-proclaimed Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics for the purpose of national concord in Ukraine, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with the Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang.
He said in particular that the main thing today is to eliminate the acutest crisis in Ukraine.
“Practical prerequisites exist for this today,” Lavrov went on.
“The accords reached in Minsk on September 5 and September 19 and the process of assuring a consistent ceasefire, disengagement of the warring sides, the pullout of heavy weaponry, and effectuation of monitoring under the auspices of the OSCE (a European security organization - TASS) play a crucial role in setting the scene for a durable peace settlement in Ukraine,” he said.
“As for now, it’s important to support the budding contacts between officials of the Kiev government and officials of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics and to launch an all-embracing political dialogue to tap the ways of national concord and to hold a constitutional reform that would embrace all the regions and political forces in Ukraine in line with Kiev’s obligations under the April 17, 2014, Geneva statement,” Lavrov said.
He recalled that the decision by legitimate President Viktor Yanukovich to put off the signing of the economic chapter of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement last autumn was used for unleashing the anti-government demonstrations in Kiev.
On the face of it, Russia, the EU and Ukraine took an essentially identical decision “to postpone implementation of economic articles of the AA for more than a year.”
“A question arises then on why someone needed to support an anti-constitutional state coup in Kiev that relied on the support of ultranationalist and neo-Nazi forces, to destroy the fragile balance in Ukrainian society, and to push the country into the perils of a fratricidal conflict?” Lavrov said.
Moscow has never called into question Ukraine’s right to build relations of partnership with the EU but it believes this partnership should not do damage to Russia or its partners in the Customs Union and should not create bypass channels for an inflow of cheap European imports into Russia, he said.
“We hope the forthcoming talks will make it possible to find mutually acceptable clues to these dilemmas,” Lavrov said.