Catherine the Great’s Statue in Odessa
The Foreign Secretary, William Hague MP, met with Foreign Ministers from France, Germany, Italy and the USA on discuss the situation in Ukraine.
After the meeting, he said:
We unanimously welcomed the Ukrainian government’s efforts to promote constitutional reform. We strongly welcome the fact that preparations for the presidential elections on 25th May are proceeding well in the great majority of Ukraine.
Ukraine elections set for 25th May
We strongly support the the work of President Burkhalter of Switzerland, and also the work of the OSCE on the ground. The United Kingdom has already committed nearly £2 million to the OSCE for their work in Ukraine, and I can announce an additional contribution of another £500,000 to the Special Monitoring Mission. It is vital that there are enough monitors to report truthfully on what is happening on the ground in Ukraine. And we call on other OSCE partners to do likewise and to increase their support for this vital effort.
United States of America
We all agreed at the meeting that Russia’s behaviour towards the elections will determine whether or not wider economic and trade sanctions will be applied by the United States and by the European Union. We all agreed to continue preparations for these sanctions, while of course urging Russia to stop any actions that prevent the elections going ahead peacefully.
