Europe yesterday stepped up diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis in Ukraine, with German Minister of Foreign Affairs Frank-Walter Steinmeier arriving in the country to push Kiev authorities and pro-Moscow rebels to come together at the negotiating table.
Steinmeier’s efforts came amid guarded optimism over the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s pronouncement that Moscow supports its roadmap to resolving the crisis through talks, disarmament and elections.
Russia’s lukewarm endorsement on Monday of weekend independence votes in Ukraine’s eastern provinces of Donetsk and Lugansk also allayed fears that Russian President Vladimir Putin would move quickly to annex the territories, as he did with Crimea earlier this year.
Photo: EPA
Yet Moscow kept pressuring Kiev, insisting that talks on regional rights must take place before a presidential vote on May 25 and accusing the pro-Western interim government of refusing “real dialogue.”
Later yesterday, the European Commission was to host Acting Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk in Brussels to offer support and discuss how to defuse a crisis that has brought the West’s relations with Moscow to their lowest since the Cold War.
After talks with Yatsenyuk, Steinmeier said the situation in Ukraine remained “very threatening,” but that he hoped progress was being toward on a peaceful resolution.
Calling for “a national dialogue under Ukrainian leadership,” Steinmeier said: “I hope this will create the conditions to take a step to bring back occupied territory, disarm armed groups step-by-step and reinstall the authority of the state.”
He also said presidential elections will “play a crucial role” in bringing the country out of crisis.
Steinmeier was later due to meet Interim Ukrainian President Oleksandr Turchynov and travel to the southern city of Odessa.
The fresh diplomatic flurry comes after rebels in eastern Ukraine appealed on Monday to join Russia following what they claimed were victories in autonomy referendums.
Both EU and US officials said the votes were illegal, but Moscow said it “respects” the results and called for talks with rebels in Donetsk and Lugansk, home to 7 million of Ukraine’s 46 million people.
Kiev and Western leaders have accused Moscow of backing the rebels and on Monday, EU foreign ministers set new sanctions against Russians and Crimeans involved in the crisis, while Canada also slapped fresh sanctions on a dozen Russian and Ukrainian separatists.
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