Ukraine sends peacekeepers to Mali
On June 23, The deputy head of the Central Directorate of Military Cooperation and Peacekeeping Operations of the General Staff of Armed Forces of Ukraine Valentin Levchik said that five peacekeepers from Ukraine joined the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali for the first time, reads the message of Ukrainian Ground Forces on Facebook page.
At the moment, 61 representatives of Ukrainian national personnel perform tasks in UN, NATO and joint peacekeeping missions.
According to the General staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Ukrainian military are participating in following stabilization mission: 12 representatives of Ukraine are in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, two people are in Kosovo, four people are in the Republic of South Sudan. Six people from Ukraine are participating in the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei, and one person participates in UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus.
Also, 21 Ukrainian peacemakers participate in the NATO’s training and advisory Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan, and 10 Ukrainian military observers participate in the joint peacekeeping forces in the security zone of the Transnistrian region of the Republic of Moldova.
Last year, former Ukrainian President Poroshenko said that Ukraine is ready to increase its presence in the UN peacekeeping forces if it helps to quicken the arrival of peacekeepers in the Donbas.
In January of this year, former President Petro Poroshenko ordered to send up to 20 soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA).