| ABC News | - |
Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon said Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin assured
him he had no intention of making another military move into Ukraine
following the annexation of Crimea.
UN Chief: Putin Promised No New Moves in Ukraine
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Friday that Russian President
Vladimir Putin assured him he had no intention of making another
military move into Ukraine following the annexation of Crimea.
Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin echoed the U.N. chief, saying
Putin made clear in a March 18 statement that there was not going to be
any new Russian move into Ukraine. He accused unnamed countries of
"trying to artificially whip up the atmosphere of international crisis."
The new Ukrainian government and the West have voiced concerns about a
possible invasion into pro-Russian eastern and southern Ukraine
following Moscow's buildup of its troops near the border.
Ban and Churkin spoke to reporters after the secretary-general briefed
the Security Council behind closed doors on his recent talks with Putin
in Moscow and Ukraine's leaders in Kiev.
"Some parties were trying to whip up tension — Russian aggression is
imminent, or something like that, throwing wild assessments of the
presence of our troops allegedly on the border with Ukraine," Churkin
said.
"Our forces in Russia are undergoing their usual routine, staying in
their barracks or doing some training," he said. "But there is no worry
of any Russian initiative against Ukraine."
Churkin said there have been four inspections along the Russia-Ukraine
border by about a dozen countries this month — including one by the
United States, Germany and Ukraine — "and none of them told us they saw
anything particularly disconcerting."
He said Putin told Russia's defense minister on Friday to return
Ukraine's military hardware from Crimea, adding "this is not something
you do if you plan anything dramatic against this country."
Ban said during his visits to Moscow and Kiev on March 20-21 "emotions
were running high ... and tensions have been very highly charged." He
said he urged leaders in both countries to de-escalate the situation and
engage in direct talks, and called on Ukraine's leaders to address
domestic concerns that Russia has.
But the secretary-general said "President Putin ... told me that he had no intention to make any military move."
Churkin said the effort to whip up an international crisis "is not
helpful at all." What all parties need to do is help the Ukrainians get
out of the crisis in the country, he said.
Churkin said Russia has spelled out its views of what needs to be done to "our international colleagues" and the Ukrainians.
"The armed groups must be disarmed. The radicals must be reined in, and
most importantly there must be (a) constitutional process ... and the
results of a constitutional assembly must be put to a referendum,"
Churkin said. Then, there will be a new constitution "where all the
regions of the country will be comfortable about where they are, about
their rights, and about where their country is going."
Russia has pushed strongly for federalizing Ukraine — giving its regions
more autonomy — but Ukraine's interim authorities in Kiev have rejected
such a move.
Churkin said the Ukrainians and their Western supporters only want to
talk about a presidential election on May 25, which he said would take
place "in a situation of political chaos in the country."
"There is no political leader in sight who might be able to unite the
country," he said. "All the politicians one can hear about are extremely
divisive for the Ukrainian society."
Churkin said Russia is being urged to engage in dialogue and is ready to
talk if there's a response to its views of what must be done.
The Ukrainians say they can't hold a constitutional assembly now because
there's no one to organize it, so Churkin proposed that the
international community help. And he reiterated Russia's call for the
establishment of an international contact group that could take on this
role.
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