European foreign ministers met in Vienna Tuesday for a diplomatic effort to defuse the Ukrainian crisis, one day after up to 30 people were feared to have been killed in fighting in the country’s east.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the annual meeting of the Council of Europe’s foreign ministers should send a message to Russia not to interfere in this month’s presidential election in Ukraine.
“Russia is clearly intent on disrupting and preventing the elections,” Hague said before the meeting.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Deshchytsia said his country is looking for a strong statement in support of the May 25 election from the 47 member states of Europe’s oldest human rights watchdog. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was also present at the meeting, which is hosted by Austria, who currently chairs the Council of Europe.
His country has denied charges from Ukrainian and Western leaders that it is fomenting unrest in Ukraine. French President Francoise Hollande warned that without an election, Ukraine risked a civil war.
“If [the election] does not go ahead, there will be chaos and the risk of a civil war,” he told the BFM TV news channel. “We’re nearly there.”
Hollande charged that Russian President Vladimir Putin does not want the election to go ahead. “It’s up to us to convince him,” Hollande said, adding that it was in Russia’s interest that the election takes place.
Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov claimed Tuesday that about 30 separatists and four government troops were killed in fighting around Sloviansk, a rebel-held city in eastern Ukraine. He alleged in a post on his Facebook page that people from Russia, Chechnya and Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia in March, are among the separatist fighters.
A represtantive of the separatists, Miroslav Rudenko, confirmed in comments carried by Russia’s Interfax news agency that about 30 people were killed, “two or three times more injured” and civilians were among the victims.
The airport in the regional capital Donetsk was closed Tuesday. All flights were cancelled on orders by Ukrainian aviation authorities, the airport said on its website.
Separatists have taken over numerous government buildings in Donetsk, the surrounding region and in the neighbouring Luhansk region.
Source : Sapa-dpa /avb
