WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — A possible UN peacekeeping mission to Ukraine may not have been discussed during a meeting between US Senator Rob Portman and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, contrary to earlier reports from Kiev, Senator Portman told Sputnik.
“I don’t think we talked about it,” Portman said on Tuesday when asked if the proposed UN peacekeeping mission to Ukraine was discussed in his meeting with Poroshenko last week. “I don’t recall talking about that.”
Last week, Poroshenko’s office released a statement saying the Ukrainian President “noted the need for sending the international peacekeeping mission ‘in order to ensure the stability to the peaceful process,’” in his meeting with the US Senator.
Portman is a founder of the Senate Ukrainian Caucus, and was one of two US Senators who monitored Ukraine’s 2014 presidential election.
Poroshenko has requested a UN peacekeeping mission in Ukraine, but members of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) have been reluctant to support the proposal.
The OSCE is currently in charge of overseeing the implementation of the Minsk peace deal, particularly the adherence to the ceasefire that came into force on February 15, 2015, and the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the line of contact between the Kiev government forces and independence fighters.
