Delay in Ukraine-EU trade deal helps settle crisis: Russia
The Russian foreign minister says a delay in implementing Ukraine’s Association Agreement with the European Union leaves space for a settlement of the crisis in the country.
Speaking at a news conference at the United Nations headquarters on Friday, Sergei Lavrov said with the delay in the EU agreement and a truce in place between pro-Russia protesters and Ukraine’s government forces in the east, “I hope that the settlement process will become sustainable.”
“It can only be gradual, sequential and requiring appropriate assistance when all external stakeholders and players are in the same key,” he added.
The Russian foreign minister also dismissed Western allegations accusing Moscow of seeking to undermine the Ukrainian economy.
Tension between Moscow and the government in Kyiv has eased considerably since Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko delayed the implementation of the trade deal with the EU.
Poroshenko has said the pact would enter into force as of November 1; however, the two sides will delay the application of the trade rules until 2016.
The Association Agreement set to be signed is the same deal rejected by Ukraine’s former President Viktor Yanukovych last November. The refusal triggered months of unrest and clashes with the police, which finally led to the ouster of Yanukovych in February and the installment of a Western-backed government in Kyiv.
The ouster of Yanukovych in its turn sparked massive protests in the southeastern parts of the country.
A ceasefire agreement on the other hand was reached between Kyiv and the pro-Russians on September 5 after Russian President Vladimir Putin and Poroshenko hammered out a compromise deal aimed at ending the heavy fighting in the restive east.
Ukraine’s mainly Russian-speaking eastern regions have witnessed deadly clashes between pro-Russians and the Ukrainian army since Kyiv launched military operations to silence the pro-Russians in mid-April.
MOS/HSN/HRB