Representatives of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People Republic (LPR) are ready for talks to settle the situation in east Ukraine, said Oleksiy Koriakin, the chairman of the so-called LPR Supreme Council.
“We are ready for talks because the lives of our residents are precious to us,” Koriakin told a press conference on June 25.
He also recalled that a tripartite contact group met in Donetsk on June 23 for consultations, not negotiations over the situation in east Ukraine. “A mutual decision was made to cease fire and ban movements of vehicles … The negotiating stage has not started,” Koriakin said.
It was reported that the multilateral meeting was held at the Donetsk regional administration on Monday. It was attended by Russian Ambassador to Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov, Personal Representative of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) Chairperson-in-Office Heidi Tagliavini, Ukraine’s second president Leonid Kuchma, Ukrainian Choice public organization leader Viktor Medvedchuk, South-East movement leader Oleh Tsariov, as well as representatives from the Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics. Prior to the group’s departure for Donetsk its members met with Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko in Kyiv.
The first meeting of the tripartite contact group was held in Kyiv on June 8. At the time Ukraine was represented at the talks by its Ambassador to Germany Pavlo Klimkin, who has recently been appointed as Ukrainian Foreign Minister.
