Too early to discuss peacekeeping in Ukraine: Russia

Moscow, May 1: Russia on Friday said it is too early to discuss the deployment of peacekeepers in the conflict zone in Ukraine. “It is absolutely wrong to raise any other questions, among them peacekeeping, until all certain points of the Minsk agreement are met,” Xinhua quoted the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov as saying.

The spokesperson also called for the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe to fulfil its mission.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko decided in March to send official pleas to the UN and the EU to deploy peacekeeping and security missions in Lugansk and Donetsk regions. Russia accused the initiative as a “deceptive manoeuvre” to divert attention from Ukraine’s non fulfilment of the Minsk agreement, saying that the peacekeeping mission should only be sent under the support of all relevant sides in the Ukraine conflict. The intention also triggered scepticism from the pro-independence insurgents, who said that the presence of any peacekeepers would violate the peace deal reached on February 12 in Minsk, capital of Belarus. (IANS)