KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th August, 2018) Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko expressed hope on Sunday that the prospective deployment of a UN peacekeeping mission to the crisis-torn region of Donbas will bring successful results for Kiev.
The deployment of a UN peacekeeping mission in the conflict region has been one of the most widely-discussed issues within the framework of the peace process. While Russia believes that the UN peacekeepers should be deployed along the contact line between Kiev and Donbas forces, Kiev insists that the UN mission should operate across the entire region up to the Russian border.
"It is important to bring peace to Ukraine through joint efforts, we are fighting for that peace. It is also crucial that the key element of this peace process - the peacekeeping operation under the mandate of the UN Security Council - would be effective and successful for us," Poroshenko said during a meeting with diplomats and military in the town of Avdiivka, located several kilometers to the north of Donetsk.
The conflict in Donbas started in 2014, when Ukrainian authorities launched a military operation against the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics that refused to recognize the new government in Kiev, which came to power as a result of what Donbas residents considered to be a coup. In February 2015, the warring parties signed the Minsk peace accords to end the hostilities in the region. Despite this, the situation has remained tense, with both parties accusing each other of ceasefire violations.
