Russia says 'Rasmussen plan’ on settlement in the Donbas must be agreed upon with separatist DPR and LPR
The plan for a settlement of the situation in the Donbas, prepared at the request of former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, will not work without the agreement with the authorities of the self-proclaimed DPR and LPR, says Aleksey Pushkov, Chair of the Russian State Duma's Committee for International Affairs. The document implies sending 20,000 soldiers from the UN contingent to eastern Ukraine.
In an interview with Deutsche Welle on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, Pushkov stressed that the DPR and LPR must agree to accept peacekeepers. "Peacekeepers will go there to carry out a peaceful settlement, not to wage war. They must connect with Luhansk and Donetsk and obtain their consent," he added.
According to Pushkov, "Kyiv wants everything all at once and right now." The politician believes that Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko and Rasmussen, who is his advisor, "want the peacekeepers to control the entire territory of the Donbas." Pushkov is certain that this will not happen; firstly because Russia does not agree with this, and secondly, because the DPR and LPR also do not agree.
He additionally stressed that Russia offers "to move slowly and to ensure that peacekeepers help the OSCE fulfill its mission."
The Hudson Institute report, prepared at the request of former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, suggests that about 20,000 peacekeepers and 4,000 policemen would be sent to Ukraine, who will take over the entire autonomous Luhansk and Donetsk territory, including the state border. Participants in the mission may be peacekeepers from non-NATO countries that are acceptable both for Ukraine and for Russia; for example, peacekeepers from Belarus, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Austria, Finland, Sweden, Portugal, Greece, Argentina, Brazil, or Chile.
There is currently an OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) in Eastern Ukraine, which consists of about 700 unarmed observers.