EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana is to meet today both opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko, and PM Viktor Yanukovych, as well as outgoing president Leonid Kuchma in Kiev
Ukraine latest: EU leaders to meet Yushchenko, Yanukovych, Kuchma
By our correspondent in Kiev, Ukraine, Nov. 26 — EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana is scheduled to meet today both opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko, and PM Viktor Yanukovych, as well as outgoing president Leonid Kuchma in Kiev, to help resolve the crisis over Ukraine's disputed election, as mass protests continue.
Jan Kubis, OSCE Secretary General, is also arriving in the Ukrainian capital today in an attempt to mediate.
Mr Yushchenko has formed an emergency Committee of National Salvation, which observers say could be an alternative government.
Ukraine's Supreme Court yesterday suspended the poll result until it considers the opposition's complaints, after Viktor Yushchenko appealed against election officials declaring Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych the winner of a poll widely seen as rigged.
It was unclear how much influence Solana would have, as Yanukovich lashed out at the West for backing an opposition that was engaged in "anti-democratic and illegal acts," in a reference to the massive street protests that have paralyzed central Kiev since Sunday.
Mr Solana's spokeswoman Cristina Gallach said he wanted to discuss "a negotiated diplomatic solution" to the crisis over the result of last Sunday's presidential run-off.
As diplomatic efforts are gathering pace, opposition supporters are blockading government buildings until the result is overturned.
Other envoys, including Poland's president Aleksander Kwasniewski and Nobel peace prize winner and founder of the Solidarity movement Lech Walesa, have also arrived trying to mediate.
"It is all going in the right direction," said the former Polish president and Solidarity trade union leader after meeting both self-declared presidents yesterday.
