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UN high-ranking official heading for Kiev for talks on assistance to peace

UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman will hold talks with the Ukrainian leadership

UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman ITAR-TASS/Maxim Nikitin

UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman

© ITAR-TASS/Maxim Nikitin

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Donetsk Republic prime minister says militia ready for reasonable talks with Kiev

THE UNITED NATIONS, August 19. /ITAR-TASS/. UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman is leaving for Kiev to hold talks with the Ukrainian leadership in a hope to assist a peaceful settlement of the aggravating conflict in the south-eastern regions of the country, Farhan Haq, the Deputy Official Spokesperson for the Secretary General said Monday.

Feltman will go to Kiev on Tuesday and will stay there until Friday night to have discussions with top-rank Ukrainian officials in the framework of mediatory efforts undertaken on behalf of the Secretary General, Haq said.

At this moment, Kiev is Jeffrey Feltman’s only destination on the agenda.

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon spoke to Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko last week, calling on him to launch dialogue with the forces opposing the course wielded by Kiev and to tap a peaceful solution to the crisis that has engulfed the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

British Ambassador to the UN Mark Lyall Grant said at the UN Security Council on Monday that the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Valerie Amos was also going to visit Ukraine later this week.

Farhan Haq said, however, that she had a separate program of the visits.

UN quarters hope that the two officials will address a meeting of the UN Security Council upon their return to New York.

Russia’s Ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin told ITAR-TASS that Russia supported the idea of a meeting of that kind.

“We do have many questions to ask them and the new tasks to put forward, and if a meeting is arranged along these lines, we’ll only welcome it,” he said.

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Ukraine crisis Ukraine United Nations

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