MOSCOW: Russia said on Friday that it was premature to discuss the deployment of a peacekeeping mission in war-torn eastern Ukraine before a peace deal agreed in February is implemented in full.
“Before the text of the Minsk agreement and its concrete points are implemented we believe that it would be absolutely wrong to raise any other issues including that about peacekeepers,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies.
On Thursday, the Ukrainian presidency said Russian President Vladimir Putin was open to the deployment of a peacekeeping mission in Ukraine, after the leaders of both countries spoke by phone with their French and German counterparts.
“In the context of the discussion of ways towards a peaceful resolution [of the conflict], President Putin has accepted the possibility of deploying a peacekeeping contingent to the Donbass region,” the Ukrainian presidency said in a statement.
Moscow however made no mention of a possible peacekeeping force in its own statement issued after the talks.
The French presidency also made no such reference, saying in a statement that the parties had reviewed the implementation of the peace accords and “considered areas for improvement”.
Asked on Friday whether Putin agreed to a peacekeeping force in Ukraine, Peskov said: “No, this is not true.”
Peskov said that Russia is not against the idea of a peacekeeping mission but it is not up to it to agree to one as it is not a party to the conflict.
It was up to Kiev and the rebel regions to agree on the issue, added the Kremlin spokesman.
“There is a document signed by representatives of Kiev and Donbass and guaranteed by three countries,” Peskov added, insisting that the parties respect the agreement.
In February, French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel helped broker a peace deal for Ukraine in a last-ditch effort to stop months of fighting between pro-Russian separatists and Kiev forces.
Despite the Minsk ceasefire deal, European observers say both sides are still exchanging fire in the east.
The conflict has killed more than 6,000 people in the past year and displaced a million, according to the United Nations.
Ukraine’s pro-western President Petro Poroshenko has repeatedly called for an international peacekeeping mission to his country.
But Kiev’s European and US allies appear reluctant to send weapons or troops to Ukraine for fear of escalating the conflict, which has damaged their relations with Moscow.
