Following a meeting this morning between Parliament's political group presidents and Ukrainian Prime Minister Yatsenyuk and Foreign Minister Deshchytsia, GUE/NGL President Gabi Zimmer has commented:

"The citizens of Ukraine have every right to fight for improvements to their living conditions and for the future of their country. Neither Russia nor the EU or the United States, has the right to try and influence events from the outside. The crisis in Ukraine can only be resolved via a political and diplomatic solution. I regret that the Ukrainian Prime Minister did not make any distinction between Putin's imperial power-politics and the real security interests of Russia."

Gabi Zimmer also stated that as long as the Ukrainian government continues to hope for NATO military support, talks between the two governments have no chance of succeeding. She called on MEPs and the Council not to further escalate the conflict by employing rhetoric such as talk of an invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

President Zimmer continued: "If Prime Minister Yatsenyuk really wants no military confrontation he cannot rely on a military threat for support. I doubt the accuracy of his assertion that only Putin, and not the EU or the US, wants military intervention.

"Ukraine, Russia, the EU, and the United States must actively involve those fighting in Ukraine for improvements to their living conditions in the solution strategies. There must not be any political power games at the expense of people in Ukraine. The EU should only provide financial aid that contributes to overcoming the glaring discrepancy between the social situation of the majority of the population and the Ukrainian oligarchs, who are a reality.

"We also call on the current Ukrainian government to actively distance itself from right-wing and fascist groups."
 

GUE/NGL Press Contacts:

Emily Macintosh +32 470 85 05 08
David Lundy +32 470 85 05 09
Gay Kavanagh +32 473 84 23 20

European United Left / Nordic Green Left
European Parliamentary Group

www.guengl.eu