Russia says it did not consent to peace mission in E Ukraine

Moscow says it has not agreed to the deployment of international peacekeepers to the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbass, which is currently under the control of pro-Russia forces.

On Friday, Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, rejected Kiev’s claim about Moscow’s endorsement of a peacekeeping mission in eastern Ukraine.

“The Russian side never challenged the idea of peacekeepers but neither Russia nor any other party guaranteeing the Minsk deal can agree to it, because first of all the parties in the conflict, i.e. Kiev and Donbass, have to agree on it,” Peskov told reporters.

During peace talks in the Belarusian capital city of Minsk on February 11-12, the leaders of Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine agreed on the withdrawal of heavy weapons from Ukraine’s front lines and a ceasefire, which officially went into effect on February 14. The two sides, however, have continued to engage in sporadic clashes.

Peskov added that it would be “absolutely wrong” to talk about launching a peacekeeping mission in the region until all the points of the Minsk agreement are fully implemented by both Kiev and pro-Russia forces.

“A document exists, signed by representatives of Kiev and Donbass and guaranteed by three countries. The points of this agreement must be fulfilled in a concrete way," the Russian official stated.

Peskov also stressed that in case all sides involved in the Ukrainian conflict agree to a peacekeeping mission, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is the most eligible institution to carry out and monitor the task.

This is while Kiev has repeatedly called for the deployment of the European Union forces in eastern Ukraine in an alleged bid to restore peace and stability to the violence-stricken region. Kiev’s proposal, however, received a cold response from the bloc’s member states which seem to be reluctant to further entangle themselves in the conflict.

On Thursday, Kiev said Russia is open to the idea of the deployment of a peacekeeping mission in the east of Ukraine.

“In the context of the discussion of ways towards a peaceful resolution (of the conflict), President Putin has accepted the possibility of deploying a peacekeeping contingent to the Donbass region,” Kiev said in a statement.

This came after Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko held a telephone conversation on the Ukrainian conflict.

The two mainly Russian-speaking regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in Donbass were hit by deadly clashes between pro-Russia forces and the Ukrainian army after Kiev launched military operations in April last year to crush pro-Russia protests there.

In May 2014, the situation in the two flashpoint regions started to worsen as residents overwhelmingly voted for independence from Ukraine in a referendum.

According to the United Nations, more than 6,000 people have been killed since the beginning of the conflict in the region a year ago.

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