11.10.2017, Russia.
The Ukrainian authorities are trying to turn the UN peacekeepers, who may be deployed to Donbass, into an occupation force establishing an international protectorate there, said Grigory Karasin, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, on October 10, RIA Novosti news agency reports.
The Kiev authorities, noted the diplomat, immediately announced their categorical unwillingness to work on the Russian-proposed UN Security Council draft resolution to establish a UN peacekeeping operation to protect the OSCE mission (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) in the South-Eastern Ukraine without offering any counter-proposals.
“Kiev deliberately turns everything upside down, declaring that Russia’s alleged goal is to pursue the freeze of the current status quo in Donbass, to limit the OSCE Mission’s observations in Ukraine, and so on. Ukrainian authorities demand the UN peacekeepers’ deployment throughout the Donbass region, primarily along the border with Russia, “ emphasized Karasin.
“The impression is that Kiev wants a completely different role for the UN ‘blue helmets’. In fact, they are assigned the role of the occupation forces [with a mission] to restore order in the southeastern Ukraine, and to establish an international protectorate there.
In essence, such an approach is nothing more than a revision of the ‘Set of measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreement’ of February 12, 2015. Obviously, we can not agree with this, “ added Russia’s Deputy Foreign Ministry.
On September 5, Russia introduced a draft resolution to the UN Security Council on the establishment of a UN peacekeeping operation to protect the Special OSCE Monitoring Mission in the Southeastern Ukraine. A number of important conditions must be met for the deployment of the peacekeeping mission: its mandate functions should be limited solely to ensuring the security of the OSCE staff members; the UN peacekeeping mission can be established only after the withdrawal of military forces and the removal of heavy military equipment; both sides of the conflict, the Ukraine authorities and the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR), must consent to it.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
