Interfax: Illegal armed formations in Ukraine should be disarmed, buildings returned to owners – Lavrov

(Interfax – April 18, 2014) According to the agreements reached at the Geneva meeting, all illegal armed formations in Ukraine should be disarmed and all administrative buildings should be returned to owners, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

“The taken buildings should be returned to their owners and occupied streets, squares and other public places in all Ukrainian cities should be cleared. All protestors, except for those who committed serious crimes, should be amnestied,” Lavrov said on Thursday following a four-party meeting in the situation in Ukraine.

One of the terms of Thursday’s agreement is that all illegal armed groups must disarm, he said.

“A decision was also made to invite the specialized monitoring mission of the OSCE [Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe], which is now working in Ukraine, to contribute to the comprehensive implementation of all these measures in accordance with its mandate, which allows it to settle different situations and defuse tensions between the sides in the Ukrainian conflict. We call on this mission to play a leading role and help the Ukrainians themselves, the authorities in Kyiv and local communities in the regions to implement the aforementioned de-escalation measures,” the Russian foreign minister said.

Russia, the United States and the European Union are members of this monitoring mission, the composition of which will be broadened following a decision earlier adopted by the OSCE Permanent Council, Lavrov said.

“We will support this mission. I would like to reiterate once again that [the sides will support efforts] to establish dialogue between the sides in order to res olve different situations in a step-by-step, comprehensive and joint manner,” Lavrov said.

Furthermore, the Geneva statement calls on the sides to “immediately launch a broad national dialogue as part of the announced constitutional process, which must be inclusive, transparent and accountable,” the Russian foreign minister said.

“These three key characteristics cannot be seen so far in the ongoing efforts of the Kyiv authorities, which have formed a Verkhovna Rada group for the constitutional reform,” he said.