You're reading: U.S. ambassador: We are ready to finance Ukrainian groups to monitor local elections

U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine John Tefft has said that the United States, along with their European partners, is planning to finance Ukrainian non-governmental organizations that will monitor the local elections in Ukraine.

Tefft said this in an interview with reporters in Simferopol on Tuesday, after meeting with Chairman of the Crimean Supreme Council Volodymyr Konstantynov.

"I saw a statement in the press that there will be observers from the OSCE and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in the local elections, and I hope that the United States and our partners from Europe will help finance the Ukrainian observers such as Opora and others, which in the past were involved in election observation. If the observers inform us about any problems, we, of course, will draw the Ukrainian government’s attention to this, as we always do it," he said.

The diplomat also noted: "We believe that the previous presidential election campaign in Ukraine passed well. In addition to OSCE election observers, we also financed observers from the Ukrainian side, and as for the local elections, we are also trying to do it again."