Multilateral negotiations on Ukraine in Geneva should be aimed at putting Ukraine on a path of normal development, says Russian permanent representative at the UN Vitaly Churkin.
“We want these negotiations to result in Ukraine’s taking a path of normal development, so that all regions should understand what they face tomorrow and all ethnic groups should understand what they face tomorrow,” Churkin said at a UN Security Council meeting in the early hours of Thursday.
After that, Ukraine could readdress its economic problems, he said.
“We hope the negotiations in Geneva will take place, and we are carefully preparing for them,” he said.
However, it is still unclear how Ukraine will be represented at these talks, Churkin said. “A possibility was being explored that the regions could be represented, but we’ve heard a negative response to that,” he said.
The Russian diplomat suggested that the people who have come to power in Ukraine have no reputation as democratic politicians, and there are no reasons to describe the ongoing processes in the country as democratic.
“Elections are being prepared, [but] I don’t know how they will be held. However, what we are concerned about is that it is going to be a radical break from the past. The people are being told: ‘Go vote and elect a president’. But it’s absolutely unclear what powers he or she will have,” he said.
