Ukrainian President suggests sending UN evaluation group to the Donbas to prepare for deployment of peacekeepers
Sending the UN evaluation group to the Donetsk and Luhansk regions can be an important step preceding the deployment of the international peacekeeping forces, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko stated. He stressed that Ukraine is ready to discuss the mission's mandate.
"A technical assessment mission that Secretary-General of the United Nations António Guterres could send to the Donbas for the development of the relevant scenarious would definitely contribute to this discussion,” Poroshenko said during a UN General Assembly debate on "The Situation in The Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine" in New York on Wednesday, February 20.
The President expressed confidence that the deployment of the Peacekeeping contingent and the withdrawal of Russian forces from certain districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions (ORDLO) would contribute to a peaceful settlement of the conflict.
"The multinational peacekeeping operation under United Nation auspices with the clear objective to stop Russia's aggression and restoration of sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine can be a determining factor to establish peace,” Poroshenko said.
He recalled that Ukraine insists that the mission's mandate should be applied to the entire territory of the Donbas, including the border area with Russia which is not controlled by Ukraine, and that all Russian separatist formations should leave Ukrainian territory. Given these conditions, Poroshenko assured that Kyiv would be ready for a constructive dialogue regarding the format of the peacekeeping mission.
"Any peacekeeping operation is based on the UN key peacekeeping principles. First, it should be unbiased, impartial and neutral,” the President concluded.
Earlier, Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations Volodymyr Yelchenko stated that the UN technical mission could analyze military and technical aspects of the peacekeeping mission and determine the number of servicemen that should be sent to the region.