Speaking at a Security Council meeting on Ukraine, DiCarlo said that the UN commends the Ukrainian people on the peaceful conduct of the recent presidential election.
Ukrainian actor Volodymyr Zelensky has been elected as the sixth president of Ukraine. The new president is expected to take office no later than June 3.
The election took place in the shadow of the ongoing conflict in Eastern Ukraine, many of whose residents were unable to exercise their democratic rights and continue to face the daily challenges associated with an active conflict, she added.
The United Nations expects that the spirit and the letter of the Minsk agreements will be respected by all concerned, said DiCarlo.
She urged all parties to avoid any unilateral steps that may potentially undermine the implementation of these agreements and to address concerns through constructive dialogue in the existing negotiation formats.
Since April 2014, an armed conflict between government troops and pro-independence insurgents has been underway in Ukraine’s eastern region of Donbas.
The Minsk agreements, reached in September 2014 and February 2015 respectively, are designed to peacefully end the conflict in Donbas. They envisage a ceasefire, a withdrawal of heavy weaponry from the contact line, a prisoner exchange and local elections, among other measures.
