Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko sees the Donetsk meeting of June 23 as the first step towards a peace dialogue with the east.
“The first step towards this peace dialogue has been taken. Consultations have been held… I am aware of different public sentiments about the very fact of these consultations,” the president told members of local self-government and government agencies in Kyiv on Wednesday, June 25.
Some favor tough military action and others stand for compromise without a war, Poroshenko said.
“Let me tell both sides: the war is not our goal. It was not us, Ukraine, who started it. Our goal is peace but let me point this out – peace cannot be won at any cost and on any terms,” the head of state emphasized.
Multilateral consultations were held on the premises of the Donetsk region state administration on June 23. They were attended by Russian Ambassador to Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov, envoy of the OSCE chairperson-in-office Heidi Tagliavini, Ukraine’s second president Leonid Kuchma, Ukrainian Choice public organization leader Viktor Medvedchuk, Prime Minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic Alexander Borodai, Southeast movement leader Oleh Tsariov and representatives of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic.
