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Russia promises strong assistance to achieving the requirements of the Geneva Agreement once Russian Military Officers were on the ground in Ukraine as part of the OSCE monitoring missions. Russia also pointed out the the Ukrainian people were responsible for implementing the Geneva Agreement, Russia was only able to provide assistance to them.
Associated Press on Saturday, April 19th, 2014 wrote:Russia's foreign ministry on Saturday promised it would offer strong assistance to Ukraine to overcome its crisis, but emphasized that the ultimate responsibility for reducing tensions lies with Ukrainians rather than outsiders.
The comments in a statement came two days after top diplomats from Ukraine, Russia, the United States and the European Union issued a statement calling for an array of actions including the disarming of militant groups and the freeing of public buildings taken over by insurgents.
Those terms quickly became a heated issue as anti-Kiev armed groups that have seized police stations and other government buildings in eastern Ukraine said they wouldn't vacate unless the country's acting government resigned.
The insurgents say the Kiev authorities, who took power after pro-Russia Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted in February following months of protests, aim to suppress the country's Russian-speakers. Eastern Ukraine, which was Yanukovych's support base, and has a substantial Russian-speaking population.
"The Russian side noted that the questions of resolving the internal political crisis should be decided by Ukrainians themselves in close cooperation with a special monitoring mission" of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said a statement summarizing the meeting. "Russia is prepared to show the most wide support in this."
The statement did not specify what that support would be, and it was not clear what it can do or would be willing to do. Russia denies claims that it has agents in eastern Ukraine directing or encouraging the insurgents.
The emphasis on Ukrainians' responsibility echoed a ministry statement a day earlier which said the first step should be the disarming of members of the ultranationalist Right Sector group, whose activists are occupying buildings in the capital Kiev.