Key Four-Way Ukraine Talks Announced
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Russia, Ukraine, the US and the European Union will meet at the ministerial level next week to discuss the Ukraine crisis, the EU said, in the hope of offering diplomatic progress in the conflict.
The meeting will involve Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsia, US Secretary of State John Kerry and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, the EU said.
“(Ashton) continues the diplomatic efforts aiming at de-escalating the situation in Ukraine. In this context she will meet foreign ministers of the US, Russian Federation and Ukraine next week,” a spokeswoman for Ashton said.
Further details of the meeting, which will be held at an unspecified location in Europe, are still being worked on, an EU source said.
Separately, an EU diplomat said the EU plans to set up a special support group to help Ukraine stabilize its precarious economy and political situation, AFP reported.
The EU’s confirmation of the meeting came soon after Kerry accused Russian agents and special forces of stirring separatist unrest in eastern Ukraine, saying Moscow could be trying to prepare for military action as it had in Crimea.
Kerry and Lavrov held talks in Paris on March 30 about ways to defuse the crisis over Ukraine, with Kerry telling Moscow then that progress depended on a Russian troop pullback from Ukraine’s borders.
The two have been seeking to hammer out the framework of a deal to reduce tensions over Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region.
The Russian move into Crimea, following the ousting of Ukraine’s pro-Russia president in February, sparked the worst East-West confrontation since the Cold War ended two decades ago.
The EU’s support group for Ukraine, whose creation is expected to be announced on Wednesday, would bring together “several dozen people” to work out priorities for the country, an EU diplomat told Reuters, asking not to be named.