Poroshenko Asks Merkel to Speed Up Work on OSCE Police Mission in Donbass

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Saturday held a phone talk with his French counterpart Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the deployment of a special police mission of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to Ukraine's southeast, according to a statement published on the presidential website.

KIEV (Sputnik) — The sides stated that despite a generally observing ceasefire reached in late April, the situation with security in southeastern Ukraine remains unstable.

"The President of Ukraine in this context also noted the importance of the deployment of asn armed police mission in Donbass. The head of state appealed to Germany as the OSCE chair to speed up the development of corresponding proposals," the statement read.

Earlier in May, OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier said that the organization was ready to discuss the deployment of police mission in eastern Ukraine. Later, Zannier told Sputnik that an armed mission cannot be sent to Ukraine without a full consensus of all the parties involved, including Russia.

In late April, Poroshenko said he expected OSCE to deploy a police mission in Donbass region in the near future to control the ceasefire.