New York (UN) – The forthcoming parliamentary elections in Ukraine must be held all over Ukraine and favor national unification and a ceasefire, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman has said.
“It is critical that the elections scheduled for Oct. 26 can take place throughout Ukraine and become a unifying and reconciliatory mechanism that will ensure that people throughout the country feel represented in Kyiv,” he said during an extraordinary meeting of the UN Security Council on Thursday, Aug. 28.
Feltman said the situation on and around the border between Ukraine and Russia “remains a key obstacle to the de-escalation of the situation on the ground as arms and heavy weaponry reportedly continue to flow unabated into Ukraine from Russia.”
“There is an urgent need to ensure a secure border between the two countries, with international verification,” he said.
“The immediate focus must be to find ways to reverse the dangerous escalation of fighting over the past 48 hours and move quickly away from armed conflict and toward political solutions and dialogue,” Feltman said.
