Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin intends to insist that European Union forces be predominant in a joint EU and UN peacekeeping mission if it is decided to send such to eastern Ukraine.

"If this is a joint EU and UN [peacekeeping] mission, I will speak in favor of a European component's predominance in this mission," Klimkin said at a joint press conference with Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias in Kyiv on Thursday.

In describing the procedure of a country's appeal to the UN on sending a peacekeeping force, Klimkin said that, following preliminary consultations with the UN Security Council, the UN secretary general should send an interim mission to Ukraine to evaluate the situation, after which the Security Council is supposed to make a final decision based on this mission's results.