Post date: Mar 13, 2014 12:54:27 PM
Ukraine's parliament calls on the U.N. to consider Crimea crisis ahead of Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk briefing to the U.N. Security Council.
KIEV, UKRAINE (MARCH 13, 2014) (REUTERS) - Just days before a referendum in Crimea to decide if it should become part ofRussia, in a largely symbolic vote, Ukraine's parliament voted on Thursday (March 13) to call on the UN to immediately consider the situation in Crimea.
Later on Thursday, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk is due to brief a U.N. Security Council meeting in New York.On Wednesday (March 12) Yatseniuk told an Atlantic Council forum in Washington that his interim government was ready to have a dialogue and negotiations with Russiaabout Moscow's concerns for the rights of ethnic Russians in Crimea, which has already been seized by the Russian military.
Yatseniuk also met with U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday. Obama said theUnited States and Ukraine recognised the historic ties between Russia and Ukraine, but that Ukraine's government "cannot have a country outside of Ukraine dictate to them how they should arrange their affairs."
In a standoff emblematic of Cold War tensions, diplomatic efforts to persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin to back down from the incursion into Crimea have failed thus far to bear fruit.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, inLondon on Friday at Obama's request and will discuss options for resolving the crisis.