Barroso is already in Kyiv, Lukashenka in Minsk

A nuclear security summit on occasion of the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl tragedy opens in Kyiv today.

President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso has already arrived in Kyiv, while Alyaksandr Lukashenka stays in Minsk. We remind that a diplomatic scandal broke out ahead of the summit, when the European official allegedly said he would appear at the summit if Alyaksandr Lukashenka didn’t take part in the event. It’s clear now that Barroso and Lukashenka will not meet in Kyiv, but there’s no precise information when Lukashenka visit the Ukrainian capital and whether he comes at all.

European Commission President Jose Manual Barroso opens today a donors’ conference for financing Chernobyl projects. Alyaksandr Lukashenka will not visit this event. But just after Barroso’s departure, Kyiv will hold a conference “Chernobyl, 25 Years On: Safety for the Future” from Wednesday till Friday. As Ukrainian journalists say, Lukashenka may visit the conference and even read a report.

Besides, Viktor Yanukovych intends to visit the Chernobyl nuclear power plant with the heads of Russia and Belarus on an anniversary of the disaster, April 26. However, the press service of the Belarusian leader had earlier reported Lukashenka had other plans for that day.

As much as 50 foreign delegations gave their official consent to take part in the international conference on April 20-22. Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjørn Jagland, IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano will be honourable guests of the summit. Delegations from Poland, Kazakhstan, Switzerland, Croatia, and Hungary will be headed by countries’ presidents. Other countries will be represented by prime ministers and deputy prime ministers. The American delegation will be led by Zbigniew Brzezinski. Russia will be represented by Deputy PM Igor Sechin.

At the donors’ conference, Ukraine hopes to receive 740mln euros for a new containment shelter over exploded No. 4 reactor at the Chernobyl NPP and a new spent fuel storage. But Belarus, the country that most suffered from the disaster, did not have a real meeting with sponsors of Chernobyl programmes.