Moscow on Saturday expressed surprise at alleged statements by U.S. State Department figures that a proposed quadrilateral meeting between Ukraine, Russia, the European Union and the United States to seek a solution to the Ukrainian crisis has already been arranged.
“To avoid any contradictions, we would like to reaffirm that
preparations for such event are still continuing but that there is no
common understanding yet either on the agenda or on the format,”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in a
statement.
“If the United States has agreed all the points already in a ‘narrow
circle’ – without Russia – with other participants, setting the date and
venue for the meeting and approving plans to discuss the situation not
just in Ukraine but also ‘around it,’ maybe it will be in a position to
announce the results right now? Perhaps the United States will also tell
us what needs to be done to clear Ukraine’s Gazprom debt?” Lukashevich
said.
“The American side doesn’t stop at claiming that its own idea of the
negotiation process has had everyone else’s approval. At a briefing on
April 11, State Department Spokesperson Jennifer Psaki used a patently
unacceptable formula by insisting that negotiators from the current
Ukrainian government would represent all the regions, ‘including
Crimea,'” Lukashevich said.
“Washington may, of course, go on with its wishful thinking. However,
this is a fruitless exercise. From our viewpoint, attention must mainly
be focused on how to make the current authorities in Kyiv to at last
try to draw all principal political forces of Ukraine and all regions of
that country into the search for ways of surmounting its deep crisis,”
he said.
“As for the quadrilateral meeting itself, we expect the promised
American reaction to our proposals for the agenda on April 14,”
Lukashevich said.
