Ukraine should solve crisis with no external interventions: Nazarbayev

President Nazarbayev belives that Ukraine is capable of solving its crisis on its own, without any interference from the outside, Tengrinews reports.

“We are confident that the Ukrainian people should solve their domestic problem without any outside interventions though peaceful negotiations with all the interested parties,” Nazarbayev said in his speech at the 21st Assembly of People of Kazakhstan last week.

The situation that Ukraine is facing now should make us sit up and start thinking, he said. "Strengthening of peace and accord is among the chief priorities of Kazakhstan's 2050 Strategy," he said.

The President added that he empathized with the people of Ukraine, but all Kazakhstan could do was watch and participate in making sure that no outside forces interfere with the situation. He emphasized that Ukraine had been Kazakhstan's partner for decades and that the countries shared a common history.

“Kazakhstan became a new home for hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians during the hard times when they were forcefully deported to our country, evacuated during the Second World War or came following they hearts to build giant manufacturing plants and develop agriculture in Kazakhstan,” President of Kazakhstan reminded.

There are over 300 thousand ethnic Ukrainians living in Kazakhstan at some point. “The Ukrainian soil is powdered with ashes of thousands Kazakhs who heroically died in the war against fascism (…). Thousands of Kazakhs studied in Ukraine and you know that I am one of them. I studied the art of metallurgy there. That is why we, Kazakhstani people ache for Ukrainians and express our brotherly hope in the fast recovery, stability and unity of the Ukrainian people,” Nazarbayev said.

Commented on the Ukrainian situation during his visit to the Hague Summit in the end of March, Nazarbayev said: “In recent years, the government of Ukraine was been hesitant in their siding with Europe, Russia or the CIS countries. The country and the people were separated into two camps. So today the goal is to bring everything back into the legal environment and this means holding elections. It is important to elect a legitimate president, parliament and government. Then, with this in place to start peaceful negotiations and collectively solve this situations,” Nazarbayev said.

Reported by Assemgul Kassenova, writing by Gyuzel Kamalova, editing by Tatyana Kuzmina