Russia rules out new Geneva talks

[Loki]

Russia rules out new Geneva talks

Russia's foreign minister has ruled out holding fresh talks in Geneva to defuse the Ukraine crisis, unless pro-Russian opposition groups are involved.

Sergei Lavrov added there was no point as an April accord between the US, EU and Russia had not been implemented.

He spoke after a Council of Europe meeting which was expected to support Ukraine's plans for a 25 May election.

But Mr Lavrov called an election "unusual" at a time when the army was being used against the population.

Ukrainian acting Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsia said Ukraine was ready to back a new round of talks in Geneva as long as Moscow supported presidential elections.

"If Russia is ready to commit itself to support these elections and to eliminate this threat and eliminate its support for the extremist elements in Ukraine, we are ready to have such a round of meetings," he said at a news conference.

Mr Deshchytsia later appealed for international observers to be sent to Ukraine to monitor the elections on 25 May.

"[We] also asked the partners to make everything possible to eliminate the external threats and provocations supported by Russia in Ukraine to allow these elections to take place in a free and democratic way," he added.

OSCE Chairman Didier Burkhalter said there should be a ceasefire in Ukraine ahead of the May presidential election - as holding it is very difficult in the current situation, the AFP news agency reports.

[Teyrn]

"If Russia is ready to commit itself to support these elections and to eliminate this threat and eliminate its support for the extremist elements in Ukraine, we are ready to have such a round of meetings..."

"Extremist elements." Har-har-har.

Those few dozen pro-Russian guys got turned to crispy critters in that building in Odessa. I suppose other pro-Russian guys burned their own folks by case of mistaken identity?