Kuchma proposes to engage Putin in the negotiations on settlement of the situation in Donbas
President of Ukraine (1994-2005) Leonid Kuchma proposes to engage Putin in the negotiations on settlement of the situation in Donbas. This statement Mr. Kuchma, who represents Ukraine in the trilateral contact group on settlement of the situation in the East of Ukraine, made at 11th Annual Meeting of Yalta European Strategy (YES) on Friday in Kyiv.
The main party in the negotiations on settlement of the situation is not Donbas representatives, it is Russia. We need Putin – being a key actor – to sit down at the negotiations table. I am speaking figuratively of “the negotiation table”: to become a participant in this process”, - said Kuchma.
He believes that the negotiations should be in a “vis-à-vis” format, in private: the EU, the USA, since we need a collective solution to the conflict in the east of Ukraine.
Kuchma also reported the next round of the meetings in Minsk on settlement of the conflict in the East of Ukraine was proposed for the following week.
Yalta European Strategy (YES) is the leading public diplomacy platform in Eastern Europe to develop strategies for Ukraine and Wider Europe and promote Ukraine’s European integration. YES was established in 2004 by Ukrainian businessman and public figure Victor Pinchuk and is led by a distinguished board including President of Poland (1995-2005) Aleksander Kwasniewski, former Secretary General of NATO (1995-1999) and EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy (1999-2009) Javier Solana, and others.
The 11th Yalta European Strategy (YES) Annual Meeting will be streamed live at yes-ukraine.org in English and Ukrainian.
The official Twitter of the 11th YES Annual Meeting: @YES_Ukraine, Hashtag: #YESUkraine2014
Special Partners of the 11th YES Annual Meeting include:
DTEK, ALFA-BANK (UKRAINE), BURISMA HOLDINGS
Partners of the 11th YES Annual Meeting are:
SHELL, INTERNATIONAL RENAISSANCE FOUNDATION
Media Partners of the 11th YES Annual Meeting are:
ICTV, UKRAYINSKA PRAVDA, NOVOYE VREMYA STRANY (NV), ERA FM
