Deploying UN or EU peacekeepers in east Ukraine essential for successful OSCE monitoring –minister

11:22, 14.03.2015 1 min read

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said on Friday that the Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe would be unable to conduct normal monitoring in Donbas without UN or European Union peacekeepers being deployed there.

At a meeting with the ambassadors of member countries of the Group of Seven and EU, Klimkin cited the mission as confirming it had been able to conduct unrestricted monitoring of Ukraine's implementation of its commitments under the Minsk agreements, including the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the frontline.

However, the SMM is unable to do proper work in militia-controlled territory because of "extreme dangers," he said. The deployment of UN or EU peacekeepers would be the mission's only security guarantee, he claimed.