One year since fall of Yanukovych
Czech foreign minister attends march in memory of Maidan events
Kyiv, Feb 22 (ČTK) — The people who met in Kyiv expressed support for the current Ukrainian leadership, mainly President Petro Poroshenko, Czech Foreign Minister Lubomír Zaorálek told the Czech News Agency today when he attended a march marking the one-year anniversary of the Maidan protests in Kyiv.
The demonstrations, during which about 100 people died, toppled former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych on Feb. 22, 2014.
After a welcome ceremony with Poroshenko, Zaorálek (Social Democrats, ČSSD) visited an exhibition of the military equipment seized in Donbas that came from Russia, according to the Ukrainian authorities. Then he took part in the march of dignity in the Kyiv centre.
“The people who gathered there expressed strong support for the current leadership of Ukraine, mainly President Poroshenko. The whole event passed off in a dignified way,” Zaorálek told ČTK.
He appreciated the dignity of the commemorative event because, he said, a possible escalation of the situation was expected as it happened in Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine.
A bomb killed two people, including a police officer, and injured nine at a rally in Kharkiv marking the first anniversary of the Kyiv uprising today.
“It was an opportunity to meet the Ukrainian political representatives and talk about the current situation. As for me, I had an opportunity to stress that today we consider it crucial to observe the principles [peace agreements] from Minsk,” Zaorálek said.
“Truce must be pushed through. Heavy weapons must start being withdrawn and prisoners of war must be exchanged,” he added.
The commemorative events marking the fall of the pro-Russian regime of Yanukovych culminated today with a march of thousands of people, including more than 20 foreign delegations, in Kyiv this afternoon.
Apart from Zaorálek, the event was attended by European Council President Donald Tusk, German President Joachim Gauck, Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski, Slovak President Andrej Kiska, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite and Latvian PM Laimdota Straujuma whose country now holds the EU presidency, as well as the presidents of Moldova and Georgia, Nicolae Timofti and Giorgi Margvelashvili, respectively, whose countries solve problems with separatist regions supported by Moscow.
Asked about a possible tightening of the EU sanctions against Russia over its intervention in Ukraine, Zaorálek told ČTK today that the EU had set how to proceed in this respect.
He recalled that in mid-March the EU would start assessing further steps concerning the sanctions in particular sectors that were declared in 2014 to be valid for one year. Everything depends on whether the truce will be observed, he added.
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