http://www.rferl.org/contentlive/live-blog-crisis-in-ukraine/25287590.html
22:35
Our newsroom's summary of the Lavrov-Deshchytsya meeting today on the sidelines of the nuclear summit in The Hague:
Information about the meeting, which the Ukrainian side requested, came out Monday evening.
Minutes after news of the meeting first broke, Russia's ITAR-TASS and Interfax news agencies reported the meeting was over.
Lavrov said he and Deshchytsya discussed "contemporary events and tasks, which...need to be considered in order to overcome the internal Ukrainian crisis."
"A wide-ranging constitutional reform -- and let me stress, with the participation of all regions -- must be launched [in Ukraine]. We cannot impose that on Ukrainian figures. Nevertheless, this is our assessment of the situation that has unfolded there. It will be very difficult to overcome a deep internal crisis in Ukraine without it. This is, by the way, what I told acting Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchitsya who asked me for a meeting. We told him what steps, in our opinion, the leaders appointed by the [Ukrainian] Rada (parliament) ought to take in order to finally establish a proper pan-Ukrainian dialogue."
Lavrov said President Vladimir Putin had instructed him to meet with Deshchytsya.
Ukrainian authorities have been requesting a meeting with Lavrov since the government of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych fell last month and pro-Russian forces occupied areas in Crimea.
The meeting between Lavrov and Deshchytsya was the highest-level meeting between Russian and Ukrainian officials since former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was chased from power in late February.
Since then pro-Russian forces exerted control over Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and on March 17 a hastily prepared referendum was held to secede from Ukraine and join Russia, sparking the current crisis between Russia and the West, which some have called the greatest threat to security since the Cold War.
Lavrov also met with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday and they discussed the situation in Ukraine.
Kerry expressed "strong concern" about the build-up of Russian troops along Ukraine's border.
Kerry called on Russia to defuse the situation and said additional sanctions could be placed on Russia if Moscow continues on its present course.
Lavrov downplayed the significance of Russia's possible expulsion from the G8 group of industrialized nations.
"As to the G8, well, you see, G8 is an informal club. No one hands out membership IDs for it. No one can kick anyone out of it. It may be the case that G8 has already fulfilled its mission -- and this is exactly what many people think because since the creation of G20 it is precisely where all economic and financial issues are being discussed."
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