Ukrainian President is against participation of Belarus peacekeepers in Donbas mission
Former Chair of the Supreme Soviet of Belarus Stanislav Shushkevich said that President Petro Poroshenko does not support the idea of deploying peacekeepers from Belarus in the Donbas, writes the Belarus Partisan.
Speaking about a discussion regarding the participation of Belarus in the Donbas peacekeeping mission during an earlier meeting with the Ukrainian President, Shushkevich said: "This was categorical: Poroshenko said that there can be no peacekeepers from a country that is an ally of the aggressor."
"Through the CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organization) and through an agreement on the so-called Union State, Belarus actually has a single military formation with Russia, so there cannot be peacekeepers from Belarus. The aggressor state cannot deploy peacekeepers to Ukraine," Shushkevich said.
Belarusian Defense Minister Andrei Ravkov said earlier that Belarus could send its peacekeepers to the Donbas upon the fulfillment of a number of conditions including, in particular, the consent of the UN Security Council and Ukraine.
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko stated that Belarus is ready to participate in the peacekeeping mission in Ukraine, pending agreement between the presidents of Ukraine and the Russian Federation.
However, Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Olena Zerkal said that the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry does not consider Belarusian participation in the UN peacekeeping mission in the Donbas to be a possibility, as Belarus is a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a military-political bloc led by the Russian Federation.
President Petro Poroshenko stated that Ukraine is ready for discussions about the stages of the implementation of the UN peacekeeping mission in the Donbas, as well as which countries would participate. At the same time, he noted that, according to the principle of peacekeeping operations, as a rule neighboring countries do not participate.