Ukraine To Avoid Asking UN Security Council To Impose Sanctions On Russia - Envoy

UNITED NATIONS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 26th April, 2019) Ukraine will not ask the UN Security Council to utilize sanctions against Russia in response to the recent presidential decree noting simplified citizenship procedures for Donbas residents, Ukraine's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Volodymyr Yelchenko told reporters ahead of UN Security Council consultations on Thursday.

Earlier in the week, the Ukrainian mission to the United Nations requested the UN Security Council to convene on Thursday for an urgent meeting to address the situation in Eastern Ukraine.

"Of course, we are far from issues like sanctions against Russia, but, certainly, there should be at least a kind of presidential statement [by current UN Security Council President Christoph Heusgen] or even a press-statement," Yelchenko said.

On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an executive order saying that residents from some districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics were entitled to a fast-track procedure when applying for Russian citizenship on humanitarian grounds.

Yelchenko said Putin's executive order and the decisions to stop oil and coal supplies to Ukraine are signals sent to Ukrainian President-elect Volodymyr Zelensky that he should meet certain conditions and that will not happen.