Kuchma calls for continuing consultations on settling crisis in eastern Ukraine
KYIV. June 26 (Interfax) - Former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, a member of a tripartite contact group on settling the crisis in eastern Ukraine, says he is prepared for holding another meeting of the group together with its other members at Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's request.
"But while the tripartite contact group is willing to look for ways toward peace, no consultations have started, and no signals have come from that side, while 32 hours are left before the end of the ceasefire," Kuchma said in a statement shared with Interfax on Thursday.
The agreement on holding another session of the tripartite contact group was reached on June 25, during a telephone conversation between Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the statement says.
The first round of the multilateral consultations took place at the Donetsk regional administration on June 23. Taking part in the consultations were Russian Ambassador to Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov, OSCE chairperson-in-office's special representative Heidi Tagliavini, Kuchma, leader of the organization Ukrainian Choice Viktor Medvedchuk, prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic Alexander Borodai, leader of the South-East movement Oleh Tsaryov, and people representing the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic.