Nursultan Nazarbayev: Ukraine - one of the closest partners of Kazakhstan in the CIS

"It is impossible to read news reports from the Ukraine without the pain in my heart. Ukraine is one of our closest partners in the CIS. We have shared with the Ukraine the pages of history", said the Head of State. He reminded that Kazakhstan has become a second home to hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians who were forcibly deported to our country during the Great Patriotic War, and who arrived here to build industrial giants and develop new lands. "Today, more than 300,000 of our citizens are the Ukrainians. Ukrainian land is bestrewed with ashes of many thousands of Kazakhs soldiers, heroically died in the battles for its liberation from fascism, together with all Soviet people. Thousands of Kazakhs studied in the Ukraine. And I'm one of them. I studied metallurgy. Therefore, we are worried about the Ukrainian people and we express brotherly hope for a speedy restoration of stability and unity of the Ukrainian society", added the President. Nursultan Nazarbayev expressed confidence that the people of Ukraine must solve internal problems through peaceful negotiations with all interested countries.