Briefing, June 17th, 2014
I would like to inform you regarding the development of the situation in light of the protests that took place on Saturday near the building of the Russian Embassy in Kyiv. The Ukrainian MFA received two notes from the Russian Federation Embassy in Ukraine regarding this. Yesterday we sent a response note to the Russian side, in which we informed them that the Ukrainian law enforcement has begun an investigation of the events tied to the protest near the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Ukraine on June 14th, 2014.
The Ukrainian side is employing all respective means to provide the safety of diplomatic representations of the Russian Federation in Ukraine. In particular, we have provided the reinforcement of security of the Russian Embassy in Ukraine, as well as other Russian institutions in Ukraine, including the General Consulates in Odesa, Kharkiv and Lviv.
Thanks to the relevant and professional actions of law enforcement officers near the consulate establishments of the RF, necessary legal order is maintained, what is more, we managed to prevent individual provocative actions.
We also addressed Ukrainian law enforcement forces with a petition to employ means to establish and draw up charges against those who committed illegal actions near the Russian Embassy in Ukraine on June 14th.
In light of this, the Ukrainian MFA assures all of our international partners that Ukraine has always adhered, does adhere, and will adhere to the Vienna convention about diplomatic relations, particularly in the part of providing according protection to diplomatic representations of foreign states. There should be no doubt in this. We also hope that the same approach is provided by our partners as well.
Taking this into account, the Ukrainian MFA turned the Russian side’s attention in the note to the fact that a protest near the Ukrainian Embassy inRussia took place on June 14th and expressed concern that special police departments, which for the past months have provided security for the diplomatic representation of Ukraine, regardless of the protesters’ aggressiveness, were removed from it and returned only after the end of the protest. Besides, in the morning of June 16th, 2014, three smoke pyrotechnical torches were thrown onto the territory of the Ukrainian Embassy in the Russian Federation.
Translated by Mariya Shcherbinina, edited by Alya Shandra
Source: http://mfa.gov.ua/ua/press-center/briefing/1231-brifing-v-mzs
