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Moscow urges Kiev to launch constitutional process — Lavrov

Moscow would like to see the Council of Europe’s more active role in legal monitoring in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov Anton Novoderezhkin/TASS
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
© Anton Novoderezhkin/TASS

MOSCOW, December 9. /TASS/. Moscow is calling on Kiev to swiftly launch a constitutional process, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said after talks with his Belgian counterpart Didier Reynders on Tuesday.

“We are convinced that now a systematic problem, namely Kiev’s inability to launch the constitutional process, has emerged to prominence,” Lavrov said. “This needs to be done immediately,” he stressed.

Moscow would like to see the Council of Europe’s (CE) more active role in legal monitoring in Ukraine, Lavrov siad. “We support the program the Belgian presidency of the Council of Europe has drafted,” he said. “Russia would like the CE to pay greater attention to extremism and exert more active efforts for the protection of rights of minorities. Also, we believe that the CE should be more actively involved in legal monitoring in Ukraine.”

Russia may play the key role in control over Ukraine ceasefire, Belgium's Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said after talks with Lavrov.

Lavrov also stressed he hoped the agreed dividing line in Ukraine would provide for the ceasefire regime. “This is not the first time when the truce was declared,” Lavrov said.

A nationwide dialogue in Ukraine on a constitutional reform is a task of major importance, Lavrov noted. “We have a joint stance with Belgium. We are convinced that now it is most pressing for people to stop being killed, forces of the parties to be disengaged and primary, heavy weaponry,” Lavrov said.

“A nationwide dialogue on a constitutional reform is needed,” Lavrov said, adding that Kiev’s inability to launch the constitutional process is a systematic problem.

Russia’s top diplomat said the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) should start monitoring the disengagement of the parties. He also said the Minsk agreements should be implemented in full.