Poland to support introduction of peacekeeping mission in Donbas at UN Security Council
At a briefing in Kharkiv after talks with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Polish President Andrzej Duda has said that his country, which will replace Ukraine on the UN Security Council beginning January 1, will support the initiative to introduce peacekeepers to the Donbas.
"We talked about political matters that are very important to us as a member of the UN Security Council for the next two years ... A very important idea that needs to be met is for a UN peacekeeping mission to start working in the territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. We are decisive supporters of having a peacekeeping mission established for all standards for such operations, not limited solely to the protection of the OSCE representatives, but so that it would be a real peacekeeping mission that would operate on the entire territory," he said.
Duda added that the mission could contribute to the implementation of the Minsk agreements.
"The President and I agreed that if such a proposal by Ukraine is actually on the agenda of the UN Security Council, then Poland will be one of the states that will support this initiative. We are supporters of this decision, and Ukraine can count on our backing here,” he said.
This is the third year that Ukraine has asked for the introduction of peacekeepers to the Donbas.
In early March 2015, President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree requesting that the UN Security Council introduce peacekeepers to the Donbas. The document enacted the decision of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) titled "On the appeal to the United Nations and the European Union regarding the deployment of an international operation to maintain peace and security in the territory of Ukraine."
In June 2015, a law was passed regulating the issues of holding an international peacekeeping and security operation in Ukraine, particularly expansion of the grounds for admission and stay of armed forces units from foreign states on Ukrainian territory.