Ukraine is outraged that the head of its delegation Ambassador to the Kyrgyz Republic Mykola Doroshenko, was blocked from participating in the Commonwealth of Independent State’s (CIS) Heads of State meeting's small council session. The CIS Executive Committee also attempted to prevent Ambassador Doroshenko from signing the committee’s final decisions at the enlarged CIS meeting.

Ukraine participated in the meeting to defend its principled position on important CIS agenda items, including the transfer of the CIS presidency to the Russian Federation early next year and the conduct of the 2020 Census.

Ukraine adamantly opposed Russia’s upcoming CIS presidency. Since 2014, Russia has illegally occupied part of Ukraine’s sovereign territory – the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and City of Sevastopol. Furthermore, it carries out acts of armed aggression in eastern Ukraine, grossly violating the fundamental norms and principles of international law, including those that are underlying principles of the CIS.

Ukraine believes that Russia cannot preside over the CIS until: the sovereignty of Ukraine in the temporarily occupied territories of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol is fully restored, Russia fully implements the Minsk agreements and withdraws the illegally armed groups that it manages and funds, as well as their military equipment, from certain areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, hostages and illegally detained Ukrainian citizens are released, constitutional order and rule of law throughout Donetsk and Luhansk are restored, and government control over the temporarily uncontrolled section of the Ukraine-Russia state border is regained.

Ukraine also underlines that Russia’s intentions to attempt to legitimize the illegal annexation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and City of Sevastopol by conducting a census in the region will be void and illegitimate, as those living in these areas remain a part of the population of Ukraine.

Despite attempts to disrupt the work of the Ukrainian delegation to the CIS Executive Committee, the Ukrainian position was delivered during the enlarged meeting of the CIS Summit, and the text of Ukraine’s remarks was attached to the Summit’s final decisions.

Ukraine sent an official note about the incident to the CIS Executive Committee and expressed its firm protest of Ukraine’s blockade at the meeting. Ukraine also requested an official explanation from the committee and asked that comprehensive measures be taken to prevent such provocations in the future.