Sending Peacekeepers to Ukraine Up to Security Council – Ban Ki-moon

The Secretary-General informed the Ukraine's Foreign Minister that the United Nations would stand guided by any decision the Security Council concerning the sending of peacekeepers to the country.

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) — Any sending of peacekeepers to Ukraine would be up to the UN Security Council, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told Ukraine's Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin Friday.

According to the UN press service, regarding Ukraine's plans to request deployment of peacekeepers along the line of contact between Kiev and Donbas independence supporters, as well as on the border with Russia, "the Secretary-General informed the Foreign Minister [Klimkin] that the United Nations would stand guided by any decision the Security Council would make on this issue."

In his talk with Klimkin, UN Secretary General commended Kiev's efforts toward peaceful resolution of the conflict in the country's southeast, expressing, however, his concern with "the still dangerous situation on the ground."

The UN chief also voiced hope that the ceasefire between the Kiev forces and the independence supporters, agreed at the February 12 Contact Group talks in Minsk, "would firmly take hold across the region."

Late Wednesday night, the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council's secretary Oleksandr Turchynov announced Kiev's plans to request the United Nations and the European Union to deploy peacekeepers at the line of contact and the Russian-Ukrainian border.

Russia's envoy to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin said Kiev's request would cast doubt on the intention of Ukrainian government to adhere to the Minsk agreements that mentioned no such measure.