MOSCOW (Sputnik) – There is currently no need for peacekeeping troops in eastern Ukraine, Russia’s permanent envoy to the Organization of Security and Co-operation in Europe said Thursday.
“In general, we believe that the [OSCE observer] mission is operating normally and there is no need to reinforce a peacekeeping contingent,” Andrei Kelin said.
In February, Ukrainian authorities asked the UN Security Council and the EU Council to deploy an international peacekeeping operation in the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in the southeast of Ukraine.
On April 14, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said that the talks on the deployment of peacekeepers in Ukraine's southeast would continue.
At the moment, the OSCE is tasked with monitoring the situation in Donbas where clashes between Kiev forces and the region's independence supporters have been taking place.
According to OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier, there is no guarantee that a UN peacekeeping operation in Ukraine might be more successful than the current OSCE mission.
