Merkel to Meet Ukraine Opposition's Klitschko, Yatsenyuk
German Chancellor Angela Merkel will Monday meet Ukraine opposition leaders including former world boxing champion Vitali Klitschko to discuss the country's crisis, her spokesman said.
Merkel will also meet Arseniy Yatsenyuk, a pro-EU former foreign minister of the Batkivshchyna party of jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, in Berlin, Steffen Seibert said Friday.
The ex-Soviet nation has been in chaos since November when President Viktor Yanukovych ditched a planned EU trade and political pact in favor of closer ties with Moscow.
The move stunned pro-EU parts of the population and sparked violent protests, while Western powers and Russia have tussled over Ukraine's future political path.
"The visit by Klitschko and Yatsenyuk shows how intensively the German government is seeking to to mediate in the conflict," said lawmaker Elmar Brok of Merkel's conservative party.
"All opportunities must be seized to lead Ukraine onto a constitutional path," the foreign policy expert told Bild newspaper.
Vitali Klitschko and his brother Vladimir, also a champion boxer, long lived in Germany and speak the language. Their sporting feats have made them popular household names in Germany.
Germany has also granted a visa and offered medical treatment to Klitschko's friend, opposition activist Dmytro Bulatov, who was abducted and tortured by unidentified assailants.
Bulatov, who has received treatment in Lithuania and was travelling Friday to Germany, said his captors had cut off an ear and driven nails through his hands before dumping him in a forest.
The activist was set to give a press conference Saturday at Berlin's Checkpoint Charlie, a former east-west border crossing and historic Cold War site.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday rebuked the European Union for trying to extend its "sphere of influence" in the struggle over Ukraine.
His German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier on a Moscow visit rejected claims the EU was meddling, saying "this is not a geopolitical chess game taking place in Ukraine".
