Ewa Malcher
We need international pressure on those who would like to break the principle of non-interference and respect for territorial integrity of Ukraine, PM Donald Tusk said Thursday after his telephone conversation with Oleksandr Turchynov held Wednesday.
"It is clear that our expectations are becoming reality, namely that Crimea and Ukraine's territorial integrity are becoming crucial issues," Tusk told a press conference in Warsaw.
"Position taken on Ukraine's territorial integrity is the fundamental test of credibility of every state involved in these historical developments," he added. Russia's approach to this key challenge of preserving Ukraine's integrity will be the test of Russia's true intentions towards Ukraine's future, he stressed.
"It seems that president Yanukovych is ready to play some role with Russian support, but in Poland's view such a role can only be increasingly grim," Tusk noted.
"(...) irrespective of legal or constitutional intricacies it seems that today nobody has any doubts that the Ukrainian parliament has legitimacy based on the course of events, and its decisions adopted by majority vote (...) must be respected also in international relations," Tusk opined.
He welcomed a declaration made by the Parliament's head and acting president Oleksandr Turchynov in a telephone conversation on Wednesday "about the need for normal and good neighbourly relations with Russia."
"First of all we talked about the dramatic financial and economic situation of Ukraine. It seems that the money that flowed in from Russia in the final weeks of Yanukovych's rule was wasted by him and the team that de facto abdicated from power in Kiev," Tusk said. In these circumstances fresh assistance for Ukraine was a key issue, he noted.
Appointments of new cabinet ministers in Kiev inspire hope for a pro-European and moderate direction of policy, Tusk opined. Arsenyi Yatsenyuk, the new prime minister, "is undoubtedly a good choice from the viewpoint of Ukrainian-Polish and Ukrainian-European relations," he stressed.
Deputy PM in charge of European integration Borys Tarasyuk has been well-known in Poland since the times of the Orange Revolution in Ukraine and is also a guarantee of Kiev's consistently pro-European policy, according to Tusk.
He emphasized that the situation in Ukraine was very dynamic and "fresh dramatic events can take place any hour if other states decide they have reasons for interfering into Ukraine's internal affairs." Therefore it was imperative to exert "international pressure on all those who would like to break the fundamental principle of non-interference and observance of Ukraine's integrity," Tusk stressed.(PAP)
