Canadian Foreign Secretary Chrystia Freeland and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Wednesday, Dec 20, discussed possibilities for deploying a UN peacekeeping force in eastern Ukraine, that’s according to the remarks from the two officials’ joint press conference published on the U.S. State Department website.
“Regarding Ukraine, Rex and I had a very good conversation about the potential for a peacekeeping mission and our two countries’ resolute support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of Russia’s illegal invasion and occupation of Ukrainian territory,” Ms Freeland said.
She added that their conversation was “particularly useful” as she was preparing to visit Ukraine December 21 where she is set to meet with the country’s top officials.
In turn, Rex Tillerson said: “Canada’s strong support for Ukrainian sovereignty and maintenance of their territory is very likeminded with the U.S., and we have shared many, many discussions about how we can progress the talks in Ukraine to lead to Ukraine’s restoration of its full sovereignty in the face of Russia’s aggression.”
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Before that, Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to deploy UN peacekeepers only along the line of contact in Donbas to “ensure safety” of the OSCE SMM observers. He claimed that this issue could not be resolved without Ukraine’s direct contact with the “leaders” of pro-Russian militants in Donbas.
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