Ukraine Parliament Votes to End Non-Aligned Status in NATO Move
Dec. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Ukraine has urged the Crimean Peninsula to adhere to limits on power usage, Energy Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn said at a weekly government meeting in Kiev. RBC Capital Markets Helima Croft and Strategic Resource Group Managing Director Burt Flickinger speak on Bloomberg Surveillance. (Source: Bloomberg)
Talks on ending the more than eight-month conflict in Ukraine resumed after the countrys parliament angered Russia by voting to cancel its non-aligned status.
Ukrainian and pro-Russian separatist representatives met today in Minsk, Belarus, along with diplomats from Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to discuss implementing agreements on prisoner exchanges and the withdrawal of heavy weaponry. The talks ended for the night, and participants left the venue without commenting to reporters.
We hope that these efforts will in the end lead to the stabilization of the situation, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov told reporters in Moscow today.
A two-week truce has tempered the bloodshed in a conflict that has killed more than 4,700 people since April in fighting between government forces and separatists in Ukraines eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Ukraines parliament yesterday moved to drop the countrys neutral status, which Russia denounced as a step toward seeking membership of NATO.
The legislation put forward by President Petro Poroshenko was supported yesterday by 303 of 357 lawmakers in the chamber, hours after the announcement that the Ukraine contact group would meet today and Dec. 26 in Minsk.
Foreign Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin, top right, and deputies of Ukrainian Parliament react after a vote for a bill dropping Ukraine's non-aligned status in Kiev on Dec. 23, 2014. Close
Foreign Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin, top right, and deputies of Ukrainian... Read More
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Foreign Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin, top right, and deputies of Ukrainian Parliament react after a vote for a bill dropping Ukraine's non-aligned status in Kiev on Dec. 23, 2014.
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Ukraine Parliament Votes to End Non-Aligned Status in NATO Move