Russian UN peacekeeping proposal is a deflection, Poroshenko says

The Russian proposal for the UN peacekeeping mission
in occupied Donbas is a deflection, Ukrainian President Poroshenko told the
Rheinische Post, as reported by the president’s press-service on Facebook.
Rather than giving the peacekeeping mission a full mandate to monitor the
entire conflict zone (including the border with Russia) Russian President Putin
continues to wants the mission to merely accompany OSCE observers along the
separation line, he said. “It’s important for Putin to maintain the presence of
Russian armies in Donbas, which he officially denies, and for the Russian
border to remain open for possible dispatches of reinforcements,” he
said. 

Several Non-NATO nations are ready to contribute to a
UN peacekeeping mission to end the warfare in Donbas, U.S. Special Envoy to
Ukraine Kurt Volker said in an interview with the Echo of Moscow broadcast on
Sept. 25. They include Sweden, Finland, Austria, Belarus, Serbia and Turkey.
The U.S. shares Ukraine’s position that the peacekeepers should be positioned
throughout the conflict zone. The Ukrainian side estimates 20,000 UN
peacekeepers would be needed for the mission, as well as 4,000 police officers.

Zenon Zawada: A decision
on a UN peacekeeping mission will have to be reached by the second week of
October, at the latest. Otherwise, the Russian government will move forward
with organizing elections in Donbas for Nov. 11, which will undermine the peace
process and postpone any talks until 2020. We believe an agreement on a UN
peacekeeping mission won’t be reached because the sides are too far apart and
much of the trust has been eroded.