Instead of sending UN peacekeepers to Ukraine, the OSCE mission will be strengthened – results of negotiations in Paris
Moscow – Kyiv, February 25 (PolitNavigator, Mikhail Stamm) – According to "Kommersant", at yesterday’s meeting of the foreign ministers of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany, the idea of introducing “blue helmets” into Donbass did not receive support. Instead, it was decided to seriously strengthen the OSCE monitoring mission already in Ukraine.
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The ministers managed to achieve progress on several issues, the publication writes. First of all, they agreed to promptly extend the mandate of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine and provide it with additional personnel, equipment and funding.
In addition, the ministers agreed to instruct the contact group (Ukraine, militias, the Russian Federation and the OSCE) to immediately begin implementing other points of the Minsk agreements. “First of all, we are talking about measures of a political nature - the preparation of local elections, constitutional reform,” Sergei Lavrov clarified. “Another particularly priority task is the restoration of socio-economic ties and the provision of banking services to the population of those territories that are now under the control of the militias.”
Meanwhile, the ministers yesterday did not reach an understanding on Kyiv’s initiative to send a UN peacekeeping force or an EU police mission to Donbass. According to Kommersant's Russian diplomatic sources, the Ukrainian delegation raised this issue, but was unable to secure firm support even from Western negotiators. “Both we and the Germans and French believe that strengthening and expanding the OSCE monitoring mission will be much more effective. Its quota of 500 people has not been chosen, and we are ready to bring it to at least a thousand, as well as to put at its disposal all the necessary means,” explained Kommersant’s interlocutor. “What we need now is not to put forward new ideas and try by all means to internationalize the conflict, but to achieve full implementation of the Minsk agreements, which say nothing about peacekeepers.”
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