BRUSSELS, May 12 (RIA Novosti) – The foreign ministers of the European Union have called for a second meeting of officials in Geneva to settle the crisis in Ukraine, the Council of Europe said Monday.
“The Council lends its support to a swift convening of a next meeting at ministerial level in the Geneva format in order to ensure full implementation of the Statement with the assistance of the OSCE,” the council said in a statement.
Switzerland, the chair of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), said earlier that there was no pressing need to hold a second round of Geneva talks on the crisis in Ukraine.
According to OSCE Chair Didier Burkhalter, the conference would be useful only in case “there is necessity to switch to the next stage.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also confirmed Monday there were currently no plans to resume the four-party talks, saying they would not yield any new results.
The first round of the Geneva talks on the Ukrainian situation attended by top diplomats from Russia, the United States, the European Union and Ukraine took place on April 17. The four-party meeting then resulted in a number of agreements that urged the coup-imposed regime and its opposition in Ukraine to refrain from violence, extremism and provocations, to disarm militants and launch a national dialog on constitutional reform.
Despite promises to lay down arms, the Kiev authorities launched a large-scale military operation in the southeastern regions of Ukraine last month to crack down on federalization supporters. Moscow has repeatedly condemned the use of military force in the east of the country that resulted in dozens of deaths.
On Sunday, however, the government in Kiev announced the final phase of its "anti-terrorist" operation against the restive territories, denying the eastern regions of Ukraine the right to hold their legal referendums.
