E. Ukraine open to ‘any dialogue’, wants to stop war ASAP – opposition leader
Eastern Ukraine leaders want to stop war as soon as possible and are open to any dialogue, Donetsk People's Republic PM Aleksandr Boroday said. He denied that they “ignored” a video conference with the Kiev side and mediators as reported by the OSCE.
Earlier on Wednesday one of Donetsk People’s Republic’s Vice Premiers reached an agreement with the OSCE mission about consultations via video link to be held on July 17, he added.
“I hope that they [consultations] will really take place. The format of these consultations we will discuss tonight [Wednesday night],” Aleksandr Boroday told Rossiya-1 TV channel.
“Literally an hour ago one of the representatives of our government, vice-PM Andrey Purgin, visited the OSCE mission and reached an agreement to hold this kind of consultation, not negotiations, I stress, tomorrow, possibly, in a videoconference format,” Boroday said.
Purgin has confirmed to Rossiya-24 TV that the talks will take place on Thursday. He said that he is going to represent Donestk region and Aleksey Koryakin, Chairman of the Supreme Council, will be taking part on behalf of Lugansk region.
Earlier, on July 15, the OSCE said that a video conference, involving opposition and the contact group, scheduled for that day “did not materialize”. The organization voiced concerns “about the fact that since June 27 [second round of trilateral consultations], no such consultations have taken place.”
The Trilateral Contact Group involves senior representatives of Ukraine, the Russian Federation and OSCE members.
However, leaders of Lugansk and Donetsk say that they were not informed about the consultations and only learned about it from the OSCE’s statement that post factum accused them of ignoring the conference.
“We are really open to any kind of dialogue. Yes, we have significant military success, but with all that we really want to stop the war as soon as possible,” Boroday said.
But Boroday claims that Kiev has made no attempt to organize talks or consultations with the opposition in the east.
“OSCE representatives, some journalists and public men called me - everyone wanted to know when those consultations would take place,” he says. “But, actually, there were no attempts from Kiev to [organize] talks or consultations. I personally called Mr. Medvedchuk [leader of "Ukrainian Choice" political organization] and asked if there were going to be any kind of consultations. He said he was himself reading about that in newspapers.”
On June 27, the second round of trilateral consultations on implementing Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's plan to restore peace to Ukraine's south eastern regions took place.
The second round of consultations, followed the similar meeting between Ukrainian, Russian and OSCE representatives in Donetsk on June 23, when peaceful settlement of the conflict was discussed. The meeting was also attended by the former president of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma and aimed at defining stages of a peace plan.
