Ukraine to Organize UN Security Council Visit to Donbas
The permanent representative for Ukraine at the United Nations, Vladimir Yelchenko, reported his intent to organize a visit by the members of the UN Security Council to the Donbas to demonstrate the need to deploy a peacekeeping operation.
“This idea is relatively new: organize a visit by the UN Security Council to the Donbas to show them that this UN peacekeeping operation in Ukraine is really necessary for the country and world community,” Yelchenko said on the air of the Fifth Channel.
Vladimir Yelchenko indicated that he has raised the issue of a UN peacekeeping operation in the Donbas previously at a meeting with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon. Additionally, he noted that he had begun discussing this issue with his colleagues in the UN Security Council, including representatives of France and Great Britain. The meetings will continue this week, Yelchenko said.
“The deployment of a UN peacekeeping operation hasn’t been officially discussed in the Security Council. We have had individual conversations with council members in an effort to understand why this idea is not met with more enthusiasm. It is clear that a Russian veto is expected, but we have a lot of other issues in addition to this,” Yelchenko explained.
He stated that the United Nations Secretariat had previously agreed to send an evaluation mission to Ukraine in order to begin negotiations on this issue. This evaluation mission will be able to see how many staff and servicemen are needed, what the connections are, what the size of the territory is, where they will be deployed, as well as other logistical and planning issues.
“I asked the Secretary-General, and I will have a substantive talk with his Deputy about what is required from Ukraine in order for the United Nations Secretariat or UN Secretary General to make a decision about the deployment of an evaluation mission to Ukraine. This decision has not been made yet,” the permanent representative for Ukraine to the United Nations said.
Yelchenko stressed that this will take some time. “I would like to speed it up but nothing is done quickly in the UN,” Yelchenko said. The permanent representative for Ukraine in the United Nations stated he has also raised the issue of opening a UN Office in Ukraine to support the implementation of the Minsk Agreements. “It’s a little bit easier because it doesn't require a decision by the Security Council, but the issue should be discussed,” the diplomat stressed.
The permanent representative in United Nations noted that the work on these issues is ongoing. “I think that we will see the first results in the next several weeks,” he said.