Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says that an international peacekeeping mission in Donbas isn't an alternative to the Minsk peace settlement process.
He announced this in an interview on 1+1 TV Channel.
"We don't see peacekeepers as an alternative to the Minsk process, as an alternative to the OSCE, which is currently physically unable to perform its surveillance and monitoring functions," the president said.
Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council has already asked parliament to ratify the deployment of peacekeepers in Donbas, he added.
"Following my instruction, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Pavlo Klimkin held necessary consultations in New York. Agreement on the support of the position on peacekeeping was reached with President of France Francois Hollande last week. Also last week I discussed the U.S. stance on peacekeepers with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden. During a visit by the U.K. Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs we also secured a positive decision on the positions of the UN Security Council's three permanent members," Poroshenko said.
He also stressed the need to deploy peacekeepers both along the line of contact in Donbas and the border with Russia.
