Tillerson: Deploying peacekeepers in Donbas a priority for US
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that, in order to resolve the conflict in the Donbas, the US considers it a priority to reach an agreement on the deployment of a UN peacekeeping mission there.
A statement to this effect was made by the head of the US foreign policy department on Wednesday, December 6, the day before the planned talks with his Russian colleague Sergey Lavrov, DW reports.
“Russia has long resisted the idea of bringing in peacekeeping forces, but now they have agreed,” AFP cites Tillerson as saying after discussions with NATO allies.
However, he noted that there are still “serious disagreements” regarding the scope of this mission’s mandate, and so the negotiations between Washington and Moscow continue.
On September 5, Russian President Vladimir Putin supported the idea of deploying a peacekeeping mission in Eastern Ukraine. However, he said that it should only be on the demarcation line, and that Ukraine should coordinate it with the DPR and LPR. The Russian resolution to this effect was submitted to the UN Security Council.
On September 20, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko asked the UN Security Council to send peacekeepers into Ukraine.