KIEV, April 28. /ITAR-TASS/. Ukraine should discard military rhetoric and turn to dialogue in mending relations with Russia, Ukrainian presidetial candidate Yuri Boyko told reporters on Monday.
The former deputy prime minister responsible for the fuel and energy sector said this had to be done “to switch relations to a normal track” to avoid a halt in production, notably in eastern Ukraine.
“We have a large number of enterprises oriented at the Russian Federation,” he added, saying that “about 300,000 Ukrainians work at plants directly connected with Russian enterprises in a production chain."
“If Ukraine loses these ties, people will be left without jobs, which will further worsen the economic situation in the east of the country. We must stop clinching with Russia and abandon military rhetoric, leaving the Russian factor to international organizations and our Western partners - guarantors of our territorial integrity,” he said.
Ukraine should “as soon as possible get down to the settlement of domestic conflict, to demonstrate its unity and integrity. This is the best protection against external influence from a third party,” the candidate said.