Putin ready to 'expand' proposals on peacekeepers in Donbas

"Vladimir Putin spoke in detail about the Russian initiative to establish a UN mission to aid the protection of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (OSCE SMM). Taking into account the views expressed by Angela Merkel, the Russian leader expressed his readiness to supplement the functions of the abovementioned UN mission proposed in Russia's draft resolution of the Security Council," reads the report. 

According to the report, the "protection of OSCE observers by UN peacekeepers can be ensured not only on the contact line after the disengagement of forces and equipment of both sides, but also in other places where the OSCE SMM conducts its inspection visits in accordance with the Minsk package of measures."

Earlier, Ukraine's Permanent Representative to the UN Volodymyr Yelchenko said in an interview with Ukrinform that virtually none of the Security Council members, except Russia, had spoken in favor of its ideas. "Someone just did not say anything. And the overwhelming majority said that they do not see any sense in working on the format proposed by Moscow."

An expert at the German Council on Foreign Relations, Stefan Meister, thinks that a UN peacekeeping force in east Ukraine according to Putin's scenario can result in recognition of the borders of the occupied part of the Donbas.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that Ukraine insists on the deployment of a UN peacekeeping mission in all occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, including the uncontrolled section of the Ukrainian-Russian state border. It excludes the participation of representatives of the aggressor country and the conflicting side, "and there can be no question of agreeing with militants on the parameters of the future UN mission."

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