Latvia FM calls for calm in Ukraine

  • 2013-12-10
  • From wire reports, RIGA

Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics has expressed hope Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych's readiness to sit down to solve the political crisis in the county will bring more calm to the country amid protests.

Thousands of pro EU supporters remain on the streets in Kiev on Tuesday, Dec. 10 amid Ukraine's refusal to sign an association agreement with the European Union. 

Rinkevics slammed recent raids against opposition offices and said they are not compatible with a civilized democracy and can only be interpreted as an open provocation to further escalate tension, reports LETA.

The AFP news agency reports that Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych on Tuesday, Dec. 10 called opposition calls for revolution as a "threat to national security" as he met his predecessors in a bid to defuse an escalating standoff over a rejected EU pact.

Several demonstrators were injured in fresh clashes with police early Tuesday as EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and a top US diplomat arrived in Kiev for talks in a sign of the global concern about the explosive situation.

"Calls for a revolution pose a threat to national security," Yanukovych said in comments broadcast on national television. "I want that this dark page is turned and is never allowed to happen again."

Yanukovych's decision to scrap key trade and political agreements with the EU under pressure from Russia and police violence against protesters have plunged the ex-Soviet country into its most acute political crisis since the pro-democracy Orange Revolution in 2004.