Kiev is planning to get involved in the Dutch referendum campaign on the EU treaty with Ukraine, according to an interview with a senior government official on website Euractiv.

The Netherlands will vote on the treaty on April 6 after Eurosceptic campaigners gathered enough signatures to call for a referendum.

Boris Lozhkin, chief of staff to Ukraine president Petro Poroshenko, told the website Kiev hopes the Dutch will support Ukraine. ‘We are preparing a campaign for the Netherlands, with the collaboration of notorious figures from our cultural scene. We want to show the real Ukraine,’ he said.

‘The most important issue now is to explain to the Dutch people the real situation in Ukraine, and to show real Ukrainian people. Ukraine is an old European nation.’

Russia

Lozhkin said he is disappointed that member states like the Netherlands are putting the new bilateral agreement at risk. ‘However, I believe the underlying reason is PR campaigns against Ukraine led by Russia. They want to show that our country is full of radicals and bandits,’ he told the website.

The referendum, which is not binding on the government, is widely seen as a key test of Dutch public opinion. The No campaign has rejected claims that they are being financed by Russia.