13:29 17.10.2018

Difficult to hope for progress in peacekeepers issue before presidential elections in Ukraine – Motsyk

2 min read
Difficult to hope for progress in peacekeepers issue before presidential elections in Ukraine – Motsyk

 Representative of Ukraine in the working group on political issues of the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) on resolving the situation in the east of Ukraine, Oleksandr Motsyk, believes that one should not count on progress in coordinating the UN peacekeeping mission in Donbas before elections in Ukraine.

"I think that the Kremlin hopes that the elections will bring some chaos. And they are actively working on it. Therefore, it is difficult to count on any progress [in the matter of agreeing on the UN peacekeeping mission in Donbas] before elections," he said in the discussion "What peacekeeping mission is necessary for Ukraine?" in Kyiv on Wednesday.

Motsyk also noted a noticeable regress in the activity of the Russian delegation at the negotiations in the framework of the TCG.

"No matter how much we want, we'll have to talk to Russia. There's no other way," he added.

According to him, Ukraine's position on the number of peacekeeping missions is that at least 20,000 peacekeepers, 5,000 police personnel and several thousand more administrative staff are needed during the transition period.

Motsyk added that representatives of Sweden, Finland, Poland, Spain, the Baltic countries could join the mission.

As expected, the presidential elections in Ukraine will be held in the spring of 2018.

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