Protesters warm themselves up in front of a fire at Independent Square in Kiev, Ukraine, 04 December: photo - EPA/SERGEY DOLZHENKO
The 20th OSCE Ministerial Council, taking place on 5 and 6 December in Kiev was scheduled long before the current wave of protests hit the city following President Yanukovych failing to sign trade and other deals with the EU last Friday.
“I hesitated whether to take part [in the OSCE meeting], what with crowds of people on the streets,” the PAP agency reports Minister Sikorski as saying on Wednesday morning.
On 30 November, Sikorski tweeted: “When police assault peaceful demonstrations, Kiev is hardly natural for a meeting of Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe.”
Following violent clashes between police and protesters over the weekend, NATO foreign ministers released a joint statement on Tuesday: “We urge Ukraine, as the holder of the Chairmanship in Office of the OSCE, to fully abide by its international commitments and to uphold the freedom of expression and assembly. We urge the government and the opposition to engage in dialogue and launch a reform process”.
“We condemn the use of excessive force against peaceful demonstrators in Ukraine. We call on all parties to refrain from provocations and violence,” the statement continues.
Russia, which has opposed Ukraine signing an associate agreement with Brussels, will be sending a delegation to the OSCE meeting, though US secretary of state John Kerry will not be appearing.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle will be attending, however.
"It is a profoundly European matter what we are witnessing in Ukraine," Westerwelle said at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels. "Europe has to tend to this."
Protesters have been blocking entrances to government buildings in Kiev, calling for a general strike and the government survived calls for its resignation in parliament on Tuesday.
"We don't like this government, young people in Ukraine want to join Europe. We want to be able to study and work freely in Europe, that is where Ukraine's future lies," Christina Yavorskaya, 21, a student from the Chernobyl district in western Ukraine told the Reuters agency. "We want European salaries, a European way of life. There is no future with Russia."
Reforms
According to Poland’s foreign minister, without speedy reforms in the ex-Soviet state, Ukraine “stands at the brink of bankruptcy” and Sikorski that he will be taking the opportunity to talk with members of the Ukraine government on Thursday and Friday.
Asked what is the optimal scenario facing the Ukraine government, Sikorski said that Ukraine faces two choices: a customs union with Russia, or the country “signs an association agreement with the EU and begins reforms, which would unlock billions in aid from the International Monetary Fund.”
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Boiko left for Moscow on Wednesday for talks on bilateral issues including natural gas, the Interfax news agency reports.
Ukraine state-run energy firm Naftogaz and Russian energy giant Gazprom have agreed to defer until next spring Ukrainian payments for Russian gas imported from October to December, Interfax reported on Tuesday. (pg)