The Secretary General is due to meet with civil society representatives as well as the Russian Interior Ministry. Talks are also scheduled with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin.
“The visit will be a good opportunity to discuss additional measures which the Council’s bodies are supposed to take to facilitate a speedy, peaceful and inclusive settlement of the crisis in Ukraine rooted in the primacy of human rights and law,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich commented.
The conflict in Ukraine's eastern regions escalated in mid-April when Kiev launched military operations against independence supporters in the eastern regions of the country. The conflicting sides agreed on a ceasefire at a meeting of the trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine on September 5 in Minsk, and adopted a memorandum specifying the ceasefire’s implementation at another Contact Group meeting on September 19. Both sides have subsequently accused each other of violating the truce.
Over the past few months, the European Union, the United States and a number of their allies have imposed several rounds of sanctions targeting Russia's banking, energy and defense sectors, as well as a number of high-ranking officials over Moscow's alleged involvement in the Ukrainian crisis. Russia has repeatedly denied the claims.
