14ymedio, Havana, 26 February 2022 — An official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs met this Friday with Ukraine’s chargé d’affaires in Havana, Oleksandr Kalinchuk, hours after the publication of his complaints against the Cuban authorities in an interview with this newspaper .
In it, Kalinchuk had lamented the silence of the Cuban government towards his country and the isolation in which its diplomatic headquarters had been held since the 2014 crisis, when Russia forcibly annexed the Crimean peninsula.
The Ukrainian representative was finally received by Gisela Beatriz García Rivera, director of Europe and Canada at the Ministry, who reported the meeting on her Twitter account. “We advocate a peaceful and negotiated solution to the conflict and we regret the loss of human lives,” wrote the official, who in a subsequent tweet recognized “Cuba’s historic position of denouncing NATO’s expansion towards the borders with Russia, as threat to global security.”
In a subsequent conversation with AméricaTeVé, the diplomat described Havana’s position as “unacceptable,” but assured that he hopes that the Cuban government will change it. “My message is very clear: please go to the streets, show that you support Ukraine, we can change the position of the Government of Cuba, we can change the joint situation,” he declared.
The ambassadors of the Member States of the European Union in Havana, who met with Kalinchuk on Friday afternoon , did show their resounding support, expressing “solidarity and support” with the Ukrainian people “in the face of Russia’s flagrant violations of the territorial integrity of his country.”
Kalinchuk had told 14ymedio that relations between Havana and Kiev have deteriorated for more than six years “under pressure from Moscow” and added: “Cuba stopped hearing our voice.”
In his answers, he also mentioned that since the Crimean crisis, there has been no exchange of students or professionals with the Island, when even since Soviet times there has been a frequent flow of travelers.
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