VIENNA, May 6 (RIA Novosti) – Moscow does not believe holding new multilateral talks on Ukraine would be effective without representation from the country’s opposition, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday.
“What the world community had to do, namely agreeing on the framework of seeing an exit from the Ukrainian crisis, we have already done. That, first and foremost, is the statement on April 17,” Lavrov said.
“Again we are gathering in the same when the opposition of the current regime in Ukraine is absent from the negotiations table, and that really doesn’t add anything,” he added.
The Russian foreign minister’s comments came during a news conference on the second day of the Council of Europe’s ministerial meeting in Vienna.
On April 17, top diplomats from Russia, Ukraine, the United States and the European Union agreed on a statement calling on the coup-imposed regime and its opposition in Ukraine to refrain from violence, extremism and provocations, to disarm militants and launch a national dialogue on constitutional reform.
Despite Kiev’s promises to lay down arms, attacks on pro-federalization protesters have continued. Last Friday saw the bloodiest violence since February, with dozens killed in clashes.
The highest casualty toll was reported in the southern Ukrainian city of Odessa, where dozens of pro-federalization activists burned to death in a building, besieged and set on fire by armed pro-Kiev radicals.
