Upcoming presidential elections in
Ukraine are essential to resolving the current crisis in the
country, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on
Tuesday.
Steinmeier stressesd the importance that "as many people as
possible take part" in the May 25 poll, when Ukrainians are due
to elect a successor to Russian-backed Viktor Yanukovych who was
toppled in February following months of increasingly violent
protests over his decision to spurn the European Union in favour
of closer ties with Russia.
Pro-Russian separatists operating in parts of eastern
Ukraine have said they will boycott the elections.
Germany is "supporting the Ukrainian government in a
national dialogue" that also embraces the separatist regions,
Steinmeier said.
His comments, made on the margins of a meeting with the
country's interim Premier Arseni Iatseniuk, came after residents
in Donetsk and Lugansk voted overwhelmingly to separate from the
Ukrainian government in a self-proclaimed independence
referendum on Sunday.
Kiev and the international community have both refused to
recognise the results of the vote, which came after the
southeastern Crimea region voted to secede from Ukraine and was
subsequently annexed by Russia in March.
In a statement issued Tuesday Russia's foreign ministry
described the outcome of Sunday's referendum as a "clear sign of
the profound crisis of mutual understanding" between the
separatist regions and Kiev and urged the government to begin
discussions concerning their rights before the May 25 poll.
In a separate development Russian gas giant Gazprom upped
its economic pressure on Ukraine on Tuesday by asking it to pay
1.66 billion dollars for gas deliveries in June.
"Taking into an account non-working days, (Ukrainian gas
company) Naftogaz should pay this bill by 2 June and, starting
from 3 June, the company will be getting gas... only at the
volumes paid for," Gazprom said in a statement.
Kiev allegedly already owes the Russian state-controlled
company a total of 3.5 billion dollars.
The European commissioner for economic affairs said through
his spokesman Simon O'Connor that Ukraine could use a
billion-euro aid package to be signed Tuesday to pay for its
gas.
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