1.      Elections of the President of Ukraine were properly organized and held in accordance with democratic standards. The turnout was high.

• Ukraine voted for its unity and European future.
• Stabilization of internal situation in Ukraine as soon as possible will be an obvious priority for a newly elected President. In this regard, he claimed his readiness for a dialogue with Russia, including in Geneva format.
• We count on further support of our international partners and the enhancement of cooperation with them. We appreciate their readiness expressed to this end to start cooperation with the newly elected President as soon as possible.

2.      The counter-terrorist operation in Eastern Ukraine was stepped up due to the intensified terrorist activities of Russia-backed terrorist groups.

• Key task of the counter-terrorist operation is to eliminate terror threat to local citizens. Extremists and terrorists continue to lose the support of local communities of the Donbas region that increases terrorists’ aggression towards peaceful population. There is no alternative to the counter-terrorist operation.
• The existing level of terrorism threat in Lugansk and Donetsk regions is possible only with the support of Russia. It consciously exports extremism and terrorism to our territory. North Caucasus natives have been detected among numerous casualties.

3.      Situation in Crimea proves the necessity of close attention of the world community to blatant violations of the temporary occupation authorities.

• Large-scale violations of human rights and the rights of national minorities should receive an adequate international response. We highly appreciate the work of the UN and OSCE observation missions.
• Any contacts with the temporarily occupation authorities are unacceptable. They will be considered as an indirect recognition of the occupation of the Republic of Crimea and treated as an unfriendly act towards Ukraine. We appreciate the work done by the EU on developing recommendations to commercial companies and consulates.  

4.      Geneva agreements are grounds for further negotiations.

• New signals from the Russian side regarding the lack of obligations towards territorial integrity guarantees are disturbing as well as the unwillingness to hold multilateral negotiations. Negotiations’ format defined in Geneva doesn’t need any changes. We urge Russia to fulfill its commitments.

May 29, 2014