Vienna: “I doubt talks without Ukraine opposition on board”, said Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov during a news conference on the second day of the ministerial meeting of the 47 nations of the Council of Europe in Vienna
“Once again gathering in the same format, when the opposition to the current regime in Ukraine is absent from the negotiating table, this will hardly change anything. It’s possible [to continue on this path] of course, but we will just go around in a circle and once again speak about how everything that we’ve agreed on needs to be implemented,” Lavrov said.
RT reports Lavrov remained hopeful that national dialogue was the way forward in Ukraine. According to Lavrov, that dialogue should be conducted between the western and eastern regions of the country.
In regards to the Ukrainian Presidential election, which is scheduled for May 25, Lavrov said it would be “unusual” to hold a poll when the regime in Kiev was conducing military operations in the southeast of the country.
Speaking on the possibility of holding new negotiations in an international format regarding the ongoing Ukrainian crisis, Lavrov said he had arranged a meeting with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Tuesday.
