DONETSK, May 15. /ITAR-TASS/. Representatives of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic were not invited to take part in Ukraine’s nationwide roundtable on national unity that was held in Kiev on Wednesday, co-chairman of the Donetsk People's Republic’s government Denis Pushilin said on Thursday.

“We were not invited to take part. We delegated no one to take part,” he said.

Commenting on the pronouncements of Ukraine’s former President Leonid Kravchuk that the next such roundtable meeting was planned to be held in Donetsk on Saturday or Monday (May 17 or 19), Pushilin said, “We are only looking at such option, but only on condition of mediation. We are not the initiators and are not going to make first steps because we don’t believe Kiev, people don’t believe Kiev.”

Among subjects to be raised at such a roundtable meeting, the most important one, according to Pushilin, was the exchange of refugees. “The other important subject is the withdrawal of occupation troops,” he said.

When asked who he thought should make the first step to stop the conflict in Ukraine, he said, “a peacekeeping organization, maybe.”

He also said that the people’s governor of the Donetsk region, Pavel Gubarev, did not appear in public due to security concerns. 

The first roundtable meeting on national unity took place at Ukraine’s parliament on Wednesday to discuss the situation in Ukraine’s eastern regions, constitutional reform, decentralization of power, anti-corruption measures, economic and humanitarian policies. It was attended by Ukraine’s former presidents, Leonid Kravchuk and Leonid Kuchma, parliament-appointed Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, government members, people’s deputies, presidential candidates, regional administration chiefs, the heads of regional councils, businessmen, representatives of public and international organizations.