Moscow: Moscow said on Tuesday it was ready to take part in talks with Brussels and Washington over the future of Ukraine but insisted the ex-Soviet country’s Russian-speaking east and south be represented in the negotiations.
“Indeed we are ready to consider a multi-party format in which the Europeans, the United States, Russia and the Ukrainian sides are represented,” Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said.
“We are in favour of Ukraine’s south and east being represented in such talks,” he added.
Russia’s top diplomat suggested that some of the candidates set to run in May 25 snap Presidential polls and representing Ukraine’s pro-Moscow east and south could take part in the talks. On Monday, Washington said it wants within the next 10 days to see four-way talks between the nations.
Kiev alleges hostage crisis
Kiev: Ukraine’s state security service said on Tuesday that pro-Russian separatists who had seized one of its regional headquarters had mined the building and were holding 60 people “hostage”.
The SBU security service said it had “established” that militants in the heavily Russified city of Lugansk had rigged the building with explosives after seizing it on Sunday and releasing several suspects that Ukrainian authorities had accused of trying to stage a coup.
“The Lugansk separatists have mined the SBU building and taken 60 hostages,” the security service said in a statement on Tuesday.
