Poroshenko to address peacekeeping at UN as Lavrov rejects proposal

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko will discuss the
possibility of a UN peacekeeping mission in occupied Donbas in his address to
the UN Security Council today, said his press service. Yesterday Poroshenko met
with EU Council President Donald Tusk to discuss the peacekeeping mission and
to coordinate their positions. He met the same day with Federica Mogherini, the
EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy. They discussed
Ukraine’s EU integration efforts, including reforms, as well as the situation
in Donbas, including the possible UN peacekeeping mission.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov rejected on
Sept. 19 proposals by Western and Ukrainian diplomats that the possible UN
peacekeeping mission be deployed to protect the Ukrainian-Russian border in
Donbas that is currently occupied by Russian-backed forces. “Our proposal is
very clear: peacekeepers will only protect the OSCE special monitoring mission
and only during the observers’ fulfillment of the functions based on the Minsk
Accords,” he said after meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the
rbc.ru news site reported.

Zenon Zawada: To withdraw
from Donbas, Russian President Putin needs a face-saving measure, at minimum. A
UN peacekeeping mission might be as good as it gets for Putin to wriggle
himself out of the mess he created. Lavrov’s position on the OSCE’s mission
limited mandate is partly a negotiating tactic. Yet it’s also reflects Russia’s
disinterest in the Western/Ukrainian view of peacekeeping mission, not only
because Putin could be embarrassed (the mission could be used as a cover for an
attack to remove Russian forces once and for all). But with the mission there,
the Russians could lose control of Donbas, which is crucial to its geopolitical
strategy of pressuring Kyiv.