Ukraine resigns at CIS representatives’ council

MINSK, March 20 (Itar-Tass) - Ukraine’s Ambassador to the CIS Ivan Bunechko has resigned from the position of the Commonwealth of Independent States’ head of permanent representatives’ council. Earlier on the day, Ukraine announced it suspended its chairing role at the CIS. The note, which Ukraine addressed to the CIS office in Minsk, reads “the Ukrainian side is deeply sorry that the CIS instead of implementing its tasks to establish cooperation and settlement of conflict situations in the post-Soviet space has turned into an instrument to realise interests of its certain members.” The CIS’s executive secretary Sergei Lebedev explained to reporters that the CIS chairing should not be transferred to one of the co-chairs - presently Belarus and Kazakhstan. “All Commonwealth states are concerned about the events in Ukraine,” Lebedev continued. “The executive committee has offered every possible support in settling the issues Ukraine is facing.” “The inner political situation, the crisis in Ukraine make it very complicated for Ukraine to preside the Commonwealth.” “We take the news as a fact,” Lebedev said commenting on Ukraine’s decision to resign from chairing the Commonwealth of Independent States.