UN Assessment Mission to Start Work in Ukraine January 23

A UN assessment mission will begin its work in southeastern Ukraine on January 23 to study the possibility of deploying a peacekeeping mission in the region, the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the United Nations said early Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Kiev invited the UN mission to Donbass on January 4.

"The work of the UN assessment mission will begin in Ukraine on January 23, 2016, in the context of strengthening the UN role in stabilizing the situation in the Donbass at the request of the Ukrainian side," the mission said in a statement.

The UN Development Program, UNICEF and the UN Mine Action Service representatives will take part in the mission.

They are expected to meet with central executive authority officials in Kiev, then travel to the southeast to explore needs in the field, according to the statement.

A military conflict broke out in Ukraine in April 2014 after Kiev launched a military operation to suppress militias in southeastern Ukraine, who refused to recognize the country’s new government after it came to power in a February 2014 coup.

The militias have rejected the proposal, saying the Minsk ceasefire agreements entrusts the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) monitoring mission as the sole overseer on the ground.