Russia urges Ukraine to postpone presidential elections

By FT Reporters

©AFP

Relatives mourn the death of a Ukraine supporter in Odessa last week

Russia has called for a planned presidential elections at the end of the month in Ukraine to be postponed as the death toll from the crackdown on pro-Russian groups in the east of the country increased.
Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said it would be “unusual” to hold a vote while the military was deployed against civilians. He also rejected the idea of holding another round of international talks on the crisis in Ukraine, saying it would be like “going round in circles” unless representatives of the pro-Russian group were also invited.

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Earlier on Tuesday Andriy Deshchytsia, Ukraine’s acting foreign minister, said he would only back further international talks aimed at de-escalating the growing tension in the country if Russia backed the presidential elections planned for later this month.

Mr Lavrov was speaking after Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany’s foreign minister, proposed a five-point plan to end the crisis, beginning with another conference in Geneva between Ukraine, Russia, the US and EU appeared in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper.
Meanwhile, in an update on the operation to break up the control of pro-Russian groups in the east of Ukraine, the government in Kiev said 30 rebels had died in Monday’s operation and dozens more had been wounded. A further four government servicemen were killed in the operation centred on the pro-Russian stronghold of Slavyansk.

Oleksandr Turchynov, acting president, also named Lieutenant General Anatoliy Pushnyakov as the new head of the country’s ground forces following criticism over the weekend after 46 pro-Russian supporters were killed in a fire at a building in the southern port of Odessa.
François Hollande, French president, warned of the risk of civil war if Ukraine’s May 25 presidential election was postponed in an interview on French television.
“The Russians – [President] Vladimir Putin – don’t want this election to take place, to continue to keep up the pressure [on Kiev]. It’s up to us to convince him.”

In depth

Crisis in Ukraine

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin moved swiftly to annex Crimea, in the first land grab in Europe since the second world war, and the EU and US are worried over Moscow’s intentions elsewhere in Ukraine

Ukraine’s plans to hold nationwide presidential elections on May 25 have been thrown into confusion by the rebellion in the east in which pro-Russian groups have taken control of government buildings.
A referendum planned for May 11 to declare the Donetsk region – Ukraine’s industrial heartland – a sovereign republic has added to fears that Kiev is losing control of the east.
General Philip Breedlove, Nato’s senior commander, said earlier this week that he thought Mr Putin would not invade eastern Ukraine because he could achieve his aims though the disruptive tactics he was already employing there.
By Hugh Carnegy in Paris, Stefan Wagstyl in Berlin, Roman Olearchyk in Odessa, Courtney Weaver in Moscow and Guy Chazan in Donetsk