The Irish Government has pledged its support for a re-run of the second round of the Ukrainian Presidential elections that are due to take place on December 26th.
A worker places the Irish flag on the stage at the main hall, before the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) meeting.
The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Mr Noel Treacy, outlined Ireland's position on the crisis at a meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Sofia today.
Mr Treacy said although the maturity of Ukraine's political culture was such that the "tense and complicated" situation had been addressed without recourse to violence, a solution was called for that reflects the democratic will of the Ukrainian people.
He called on those participating in the council to "strongly support" the re-run of the elections and said that Ireland would be sending a team of observers to the election following a request from the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).
The ODIHR found that the second round of the presidential election in Ukraine on 21 November did not meet a considerable number of OSCE commitments, Council of Europe and other European standards for democratic elections.
The mission found a degree of abuse of state resources and media bias in favour of the Government candidate, and that the election "was not conducted on a level playing field."
