Ukraine Contact Group to Meet Monday in Minsk
The so-called Contact Group on Ukraine will meet Monday in Minsk, Belarussian officials said, as the Kremlin emphasized the importance of having separatists participate.
The Belarussian foreign ministry said representatives of Kiev, Moscow and the OSCE would attend the talks but did not provide details.
A Kremlin statement said that President Vladimir Putin and his Belarussian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko "emphasized the importance of organizing" the meeting gathering representatives of "the Kiev authorities, the southeastern regions, the OSCE and Russia" during a phone call.
Russia has insisted repeatedly that Kiev must speak with rebels holding parts of east Ukraine if the conflict is to be resolved.
Kiev, however, has been reluctant to sit down at the table with the separatists, especially when many of their leaders are Russian.
At a July 17 Contact Group meeting in Kiev a video conference was held with the separatists in a bid to secure safe access to the crash area of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which was shot down earlier that day over insurgent-held east Ukraine killing all 298 on board.
A prominent separatist leader, Denis Pushilin, attended the last Contact Group meeting, on July 31 in Minsk, according to video footage broadcast on Belarussian TV.
Former president Leonid Kuchma usually represents Kiev at such meetings and Russia's ambassador to Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov attends on behalf of Moscow.
Fears of an wider confrontation have spiraled in recent days after the West and Kiev said Russian troops were actively fighting alongside rebels in east Ukraine and helping the insurgents launched a new counter-offensive that has seen key towns in the southeast wrested from Kiev's control.
Source: Agence France Presse
| Copyright © 2012 Naharnet.com. All Rights Reserved. | https://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/145522 |