US President Obama meets Ukrainian PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk
12 March 2014, 23:45 -- US President Barack Obama has held a high-profile White House meeting with Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, in a calculated display of the West's backing – moral, financial and diplomatic – for the embattled new government in Kiev.
The Oval Office session, four days before the referendum in Crimea on whether the territory should rejoin Russia, was intended to send a clear message to the Kremlin.
The Obama-Yatsenyuk meeting demonstrates the fact 'that we strongly support the Ukrainian people,' and its territorial integrity and sovereignty, White House spokesman Jay Carney said before the two leaders were to meet.
US President Barack Obama and Ukraine's interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk appealed to Russia to resume dialogue in order to avoid what Obama called high 'costs' if it stays on its current path in Crimea.
Yatsenyuk declared that his government was 'absolutely ready and open for talks with the Russian Federation' and urged Moscow to 'start the dialogue' without guns and tanks.
'Our Russian partners ought to realize that we are ready to make a new type ... of our relationship, where Ukraine is a part of the European Union, but Ukraine is a good friend and partner of Russia,' he said.
Yatsenyuk indicated that within a week or 10 days, Ukraine would sign the political part of a proposed association agreement with the European Union.
'We want to be very clear that Ukraine is and will be a part of the Western world,' he said.
Obama said that everyone recognizes the close historic ties between Russia and Ukraine.
'There is a constitutional process in place and a set of elections that they can move forward on, that in fact could lead to different arrangements over time with the Crimean region,' Obama said.
The leaders of the Group of Seven (G7), the world's seven wealthiest developed countries, earlier warned Moscow that Sunday's referendum in Crimea was illegal and threatened more sanctions if it were to go ahead and if Russia annexed the region.
Yatsenyuk met earlier Wednesday with Secretary of State John Kerry, telling reporters he would 'answer later' whether he supports a nation-wide referendum on the future of Crimea as opposed to the local provincial one being held Sunday with Russian backing.
In another development, Senator John McCain is to lead a congressional delegation to Ukraine on Thursday to meet with government leaders, according to The Daily Beast newspaper.
Voice of Russia, Independent, dpa
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