UN’s Ban calls for urgent Russia-Ukraine talks
KYIV, March 21 (Reuters) – U.N. Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon urged Ukraine and Russia on Friday to meet for talks to
prevent the crisis between them becoming “uncontrollable” and
spreading beyond the region.
“What is important at this time is for Ukraine and Russian
authorities to sit down together and engage in direct and
constructive dialogue,” Ban said in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv
after meeting acting President Oleksander Turchinov.
Ban said the longer peaceful dialogue was delayed, “the
greater risk there will be of uncontrollable situations beyond
these two countries and beyond the region.” Turchinov said
Ukraine would never accept Russia’s annexation of Crimea, the
Black Sea peninsula that is at the heart of the crisis.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk, Writing by Alessandra Prentice,
Editing by Timothy Heritage)