Ukraine has ensured that European leaders attending a summit next month on the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe will not run into Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko, who is on a Western black list.
"As far as a visit by Lukashenko is concerned … I can say on the basis of information from the foreign ministry that Belarus and the Russian Federation will be represented at the summit by prime ministers," Ukrainian presidential administration chief Serhiy Lyovochkin told reporters.
The arrangement averts a diplomatic embarrassment for the host country because Belarussian Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich does not appear on the list of Minsk officials banned from travelling to the West.
Ukraine is inviting world leaders to a conference in Kiev on April 19 to mark the 25th anniversary of the world’s worst nuclear accident at its Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
Its plan to have the conference opened by European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso appeared threatened by the possible attendance of Lukashenko, whose country was badly affected by radioactivity that billowed across the border from the stricken reactor.
The Ukrainian news agency, UNIAN, quoted an unnamed EC source as saying Barroso would take part in the Kiev summit only on condition that Lukashenko was not there.
"As far as participation is concerned, Ukraine, as the host, is responsible for issuing the invitations. The Ukrainian authorities are well aware of the EU’s position on Belarus," Barroso’s spokesman said in Brussels on Friday. Lukashenko heads a list of more than 150 Belarussian officials banned from travel in the West in retaliation for a police crackdown last December on an opposition protest against his election for a fourth term in power.
