No Script

Please Wait...

Al-Ahed Telegram

Ukraine to Unveil New Gov’t, Russia Warns West

Ukraine to Unveil New Gov’t, Russia Warns West
folder_openMore from Europe access_time10 years ago
starAdd to favorites

Local Editor

Ukraine must not be forced to choose between close ties with Russia or the West, Russia Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday in Moscow's latest warning to the European Union and United States not to try to shape the ex-Soviet state's future.

Ukraine to Unveil New Gov’t, Russia Warns West "It is dangerous an counterproductive to try to force upon a Ukraine a choice on the principle: 'You are either with us or against us'," Lavrov said at a joint news conference after talks with Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn.

This comes as Ukraine was set to unveil a new prime minister and cabinet on Tuesday as top Western envoys rushed to Kiev to try to find a lasting solution to the crisis rocking the economically-teetering country.

Ukraine has appealed to the West for $35 billion, following the weekend ousting of pro-Moscow president Viktor Yanukovych after days of carnage in Kiev left almost 100 dead.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton arrived in Kiev on Monday as the Ukrainian capital slowly returned to normal, with shops and restaurants in the center re-opening.

She met with interim leader Oleksandr Turchynov, who has warned that Kiev will have no alternative but to default on $13 billion in foreign obligations due this year should the West fail to come to the aid of the economically-struggling country.
Adding to the diplomatic effort, Washington is sending Deputy Secretary of State William Burns to Kiev Tuesday, and British Foreign Secretary William Hague is due to visit Ukraine soon.

The United States has stopped short of endorsing Ukraine's interim leader and called for a technocratic government to promote early elections.
Turchynov has vowed to draw up a "government of the people" and warned Russia that he expects the Kremlin to respect Ukraine's pivot to the West.

On Tuesday, the electoral commission said the campaign for presidential polls set for May 25 had officially kicked off, though who exactly will stand for the top post remains to be seen.
Names commonly put forward include protest leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk, a pro-EU former foreign and economy minister; Yulia Tymoshenko, the freed opposition leader and the leader of the 2004 Orange Revolution; Petro Poroshenko, a billionaire chocolate baron; and Vitali Klitschko a world heavyweight boxing champion-turned-politician.

The interim premier and cabinet set to be announced on Tuesday will have the tough tasks of keeping stability in Ukraine ahead of the polls.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev also issued a firm response by condemning the "armed mutiny" in Ukraine.

"The legitimacy of a whole number of organs of power that function there raises great doubts," he was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.
"Some of our foreign, Western partners think otherwise," Medvedev said. "This is some kind of (an) aberration."

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

Comments