From our newsroom:
NATO members and Ukraine have condemned Moscow for what they called Russia's "deliberate destabilization of eastern Ukraine" and its military buildup in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula it annexed from Ukraine in March.
"We condemn Russia's military build-up in Crimea," the foreign ministers of 28 NATO nations and Ukraine said in a statement after a meeting in Brussels. "We are also concerned with Russia's stated plans for further military build-up on the Black Sea."
They strongly condemned Russia's "continued and deliberate destabilization of eastern Ukraine in breach of international law, including the provision of tanks, advanced air defense systems and other heavy weapons to the separatists."
Russia denies involvement in the conflict that has killed more than 4,300 people in eastern Ukraine, despite what Kyiv and NATO say is clear evidence of direct military support for the pro-Russian separatists.
Based on reporting by Reuters
It includes the following passage:
We strongly condemn Russia’s continued and deliberate destabilization of eastern Ukraine in breach of international law, including the provision of tanks, advanced air defence systems and other heavy weapons to the separatists, and military activities, which violate the agreements reached in Minsk in September. Russia’s stated “respect” for the results of the separatists’ so-called elections on 2 November, which we do not and will not recognise, has further exacerbated tensions. We condemn Russia’s military build-up in Crimea, as well as the worsening human rights situation on the Crimean peninsula. We call on Russia to reverse its illegal and illegitimate self-declared “annexation” of Crimea, which we do not and will not recognise, and to respect the rights of the local population, including the native Crimean Tatars. Russia’s actions undermine the security of Ukraine and have serious implications for the stability and security of the entire Euro-Atlantic area. In that regard, we are also concerned with Russia’s stated plans for further military build-up on the Black Sea, which will potentially have further implications on the stability of the region.
This is just in from RFE/RL's news desk:
Ukrainian lawmakers are expected to approve the full list of a new cabinet led by Arseniy Yatsenyuk by the end of December 2.
President Petro Poroshenko on December 2 recommended that Ukrainian lawmakers reappoint Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin and Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak.
According to the constitution, the Ukrainian president has the right to suggest appointments for foreign and defense ministers.
Klimkin has been serving as foreign minister since June and Poltorak has been defense minister since October.
Poroshenko wrote on Facebook earlier on December 2 that he had signed a decree on granting Ukrainian citizenship to three foreign nationals -- American Natalya Yaresko, Georgian Aleksandr Kvitashvili, and Lithuanian Aivaras Abromavicius.
Media reports say the three could join the new cabinet as finance, health, and economy ministers.
(Facebook, pravda.com.ua, UNIAN)
Meanwhile, Radio Prague has been reporting the following:
The Czech Republic will repatriate between 30 and 50 ethnic Czechs from eastern Ukraine, the daily Lidové noviny reported on Monday [December 1] quoting government sources. The paper says that the Interior Ministry has started verifying the identity of people from the conflict-ridden Donbas region who have applied for repatriation; if their Czech ancestry is confirmed, they could be repatriated over the next several months. The move comes after months of debates on how many, if any at all, ethnic Czechs from Ukraine could relocate to the Czech Republic.
Read the entire report here