Poroshenko: No agreement with militants on UN peacekeepers

Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko said this in his speech to parliament on Thursday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"The Ukrainian side is ready for a substantive discussion with UN Security Council members [on the deployment of a UN peacekeeping mission in the entire territory of the Donbas]," he said.

He added that this discussion should include some fundamental elements. In particular, the Ukrainian side supports the deployment of a full-fledged UN peacekeeping mission in the Donbas to ensure lasting peace in certain districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and the future UN mission to be deployed in the entire temporarily occupied territory, including the uncontrolled section of the Ukrainian-Russian state border. 

The mission should also exclude the participation of representatives of the aggressor country and the parties to the conflict, and there can be no question about agreeing the parameters of the future UN mission with militants, Poroshenko said.

"The work on the abovementioned initiative is in no way a ground for cancelling current international sanctions against Russia and should remain in force until the full restoration of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity through the implementation of the Minsk accords," Poroshenko said.

According to him, it is clear that it will be extremely difficult to agree on the parameters of the peacekeeping mission.

"In one-and-a-half weeks, I will leave for New York to attend the UN General Assembly. I'm sure that with joint efforts, with the help of international partners, first of all Germany, France and the United States, we will definitely establish peace and return all occupied territories and restore the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine," Poroshenko said.

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