Donetsk, Sep 5 - DAN. DPR head Alexander Zakharchenko has called for discussing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proposal to have the UN Security Council to consider the deployment of peacekeepers on the Contact Line in Donbass.
“The people of Donbass, as no one else, are interested in the beginning of settlement of our conflict with Kiev, so that no more people get killed,” Zakharchenko said in a statement received by Donetsk News Agency on Tuesday. “For the sake of this objective we’re ready to not only consider any initiatives, but also bring forward our own proposals.”
“The Russian president’s proposal that the UN Security Council considers the deployment of UN peacekeepers in Donbass should be discussed,” he said.
The DPR leader made it clear that Ukraine’s fulfilment of the security provisions under the Minsk Agreements must precede peacekeeper deployment in Donbass.
These includes ceasefire and withdrawal of large-calibre weapons. “Only after that can we have a substantive discussion of peacekeepers as the guards protecting OSCE monitors,” he said.
“If Ukraine keeps its weapons on the Contact Line behaving as it does today, the peacekeepers might be targeted in provocations by Ukrainian side,” Zakharchenko said.
“In any case, we are ready to discuss the designated initiative and insist that no changes in the settlement format are possible without DPR’s and LPR’s approval,” he said.
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian Foreign Ministry to draw a draft UN Security Council resolution on deploying peacekeepers in Donbass to ensure the safety of the OSCE monitoring mission.*jk