Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk's promise during an unannounced visit to the blue-collar coal mining region of Donetsk came as militants armed with Kalashnikovs barricaded themselves inside the local administration building and demanded a referendum on joining Russia.
A similar occupation of the state security office of the hardscrabble eastern city of Lugansk has confronted the leaders with their biggest challenge since their February ouster of a Kremlin-backed president and Russia's actions in Crimea.
Meanwhile, Ukraine said on Friday it would turn to Europe for gas and won a promise of help from Brussels after Russia warned it could cut supplies over Kiev's refusal to pay Moscow's "political, uneconomic price" for supplies.
Presenting a united front a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin wrote to the EU warning that its supplies could be disrupted if Ukraine failed to cover its bills, European officials said they had little to fear and would help Ukraine pay.
But Putin said on Friday Russia would fulfill its obligations to European gas clients and had no plans to halt deliveries to Ukraine.
- Putin's gas threat prompted US President Barack Obama to raise the possibility of a third and most painful yet round of sanctions against Moscow.
Yatsenyuk flew overnight to Donetsk to enlist the help of its mayor and Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine's richest man and one of its most legendary powerbrokers, in finding a bloodless solution to the occupation of the local government seat.
Yatsenyuk immediately addressed one of the protesters' most pressing concerns by promising never to limit the use of the Russian language in the region.
"No one under any circumstances will restrict the use of a language that a person is accustomed to using," he said.
He also admitted he "must respond to people's desire to have more regional authority." "We will implement this task within the framework of constitutional reforms," said Yatsenyuk.
AFP - Reuters-globaltimes.cn
11/4/14
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EU says will help Ukraine pay off part of debts to Gazprom...
ReplyDeleteCommissioner for Energy Gunter Oettinger is drafting proposals for how to pay off Ukraine’s debt to the Russian supplier of natural gas, OAO Gazprom, Oettinger said Friday speaking to O1 Austrian Public Radio as he visited Vienna.
He said along with it he personally thought that only a part of the bills Gazprom had issued to Ukraine contained grounded total sums to be paid.
http://en.itar-tass.com/world/727485
11/4/14
IMF and West can give Ukraine $ 6 billion in first tranche of bailout...
ReplyDeleteInternational Monetary Fund and a number of Western countries can provide Ukraine a loan of $ 6 billion in the first tranche of financial aid, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov.
According to Siluanov, such opportunity was discussed during the bilateral meetings with German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and the US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew and is now being developed at an expert level.
"We just paid attention to this at a meeting with Finance Minister Schäuble and Jacob Lew. Until the last moment Russia was very seriously helping Ukraine, provding 35.4 billion dollars over four years. Now we offer our western partners also to participate in supporting Ukraine in order for it to perform its obligations, including payments for gas", Siluanov told reporters after the meeting.
"This assistance from the IMF, the assistance of the Western governments. The amount of the first tranche was considered of $ 6 billion: $ 3 billion from the fund and $ 3 billion from the western countries. Such solution was not made but it is being considered at the level of experts," said the Minister.
Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_04_12/IMF-and-West-can-give-Ukraine-6-billion-in-first-tranche-of-bailout-9586/