VIENNA, May 6 (RIA Novosti) – External players, including Russia, the US and the EU, must help promote dialogue in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday.
“We are convinced that the way out of the crisis in Ukraine exists. It could be found exclusively on the basis of a wide national dialogue in which will be fully heard voices from the South and the East, and in general from every region in Ukraine,” Lavrov said.
“We have confirmed our readiness to be part of the organization of such dialogue. We have sound basis [for the dialogue] that consist in the agreement of February 21, and Geneva accords of April 17,” he added.
Lavrov stressed that existing agreements and accords must be implemented, citing that the Ukrainian people able to fulfill this step.
The Russian foreign minister and his Austrian counterpart Sebastian Kurtz met in Vienna on Monday on the sidelines of a session of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, where Kurtz serves as the current chairman. The ministers discussed the situation in Ukraine as well as the role of the Council of Europe in its resolution.
On February 21, now-ousted Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovich signed a deal with the opposition, currently in power in Kiev, following negotiations overseen by a group of EU officials.
The agreement was intended to put an end to the unrest in the country, but despite Yanukovich meeting the demands of Euromaidan leaders announcing early elections and changes to the constitution, the protests turned violent and the president was forced to flee to Russia under threats to his life. The Western-backed interim government in Kiev has ignored Moscow's calls to implement the February agreement.
