You're reading: Poroshenko backs Putin’s call to postpone May 11 referendum in southeastern Ukraine

Ukrainian presidential candidate and MP Petro Poroshenko has welcomed the recommendations given by Russian President Vladimir Putin to separatists in southeastern Ukraine to postpone their referendum.

“We are cautiously optimistic about the joint statement made by the OSCE [Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe] chairperson-in-office and the president of the Russian Federation, who advised the separatists to postpone the aforementioned referendum. We welcome it [the statement],” Poroshenko told reporters after a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on May 7.

The international community will not recognize the results of the referendum that separatists in Luhansk and Donetsk regions are attempting to hold on May 11, he said.

“Today the stance taken by the entire world is important because it says that this pseudo-referendum is invalid, and no one will take its results into consideration. We will not allow the Crimean scenario to be repeated in the east of Ukraine,” Poroshenko said.

The presidential candidate also supported the OSCE’s initiative of roundtable meetings, which, Poroshenko said, would help “bring peace, accord and reconciliation, as well as will help preserve the unity of the state and guarantee the free expression of citizens’ will during the presidential elections.”

Steps to disarm illegal armed groups being accompanied by the implementation of the amnesty laws, among other measures, will contribute to a peaceful process in Ukraine, he said.

“Today there is no alternative to the anti-terrorist operation,” he added.

Speaking at a press conference on May 7, Putin called on separatists in the southeast of Ukraine to postpone their May 11 referendum.

According to Putin, Russia wants representatives of southeastern Ukraine to take this step “in order to create the conditions needed to [establish] dialogue” with the Kyiv authorities.

After proclaiming the establishment of the “Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics” in early April, local pro-Russian activists announced plans to hold referendums on May 11 to determine the regions’ status.