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Ukraine seeks peaceful settlement of Crimean crisis — acting FM

Ukraine is trying to settle the situation in Crimea in a peaceful way
Unidentified armed men in military uniform patrol near a building at the airport in Simferopol, Crimea EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV
Unidentified armed men in military uniform patrol near a building at the airport in Simferopol, Crimea
© EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV

KIEV, February 28. /ITAR-TASS/. Ukraine is trying to settle the situation in Crimea in a peaceful way, Ukraine’s acting Foreign Minister Andrey Deschitsa told journalists on Friday.

“We are trying to resolve this issue by peaceful means,” he said.

Deschitsa recalled that Ukraine had already urged the members of the Budapest memorandum to hold consultations.

Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances was an international treaty on Ukraine's nuclear-free status, signed in Budapest in 1994 between Ukraine, USA, Russia, and Great Britain. In exchange for nuclear disarmament Ukraine received guarantees of the country’s security and territorial integrity.

Deschitsa said it was “a priority” of Ukraine’s new government to develop good-neighbourly partnership relations with Russia.

“We want to highlight in the shortest possible time the priority of this problem,” he added.