Zelensky cautious about deployment of peacekeepers in Donbas

12:01, 13.09.2019 1 min read

 A deployment of peacekeepers in Donbas must be limited to the Ukrainian-Russian border, President Volodymyr Zelensky said at the 16th YES Annual Meeting "Happiness Now: New Approaches for a World in Crisis" in Kyiv on Friday.

"I feel extremely cautious about deploying peacekeepers in Donbas. I know that such issues and ways to deploy a peacekeeping mission have earlier been discussed. I am cautious because I do not want Donbas to share the scenarios of Abkhazia or Transdniestria," Zelensky said.

Zelensky said he did not want peacekeepers to be stationed on the Donbas contact line "and never leave."

"We are not raising the issue of peacekeepers. Leonid Danylovych Kuchma [the second president of Ukraine and representative in the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG)], is here and he does not raise this issue, either," Zelensky said.

The president added he would gladly agree to deploying peacekeepers on the border with Russia. "Please, we invite them to be there. This is where we see the assistance and peacekeeping mission," Zelensky said.