The United Nations peacekeeping mission issue for the end of the war in Donbas has been postponed, but not removed from the plan. Alexei Reznikov, the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Reintegration of the Occupied Territories, stated this.

“The issues of peacekeepers were once discussed by our diplomats at the UN Security Council level. There was a discussion about the mission nature (peace restoration or support) and a place where peacekeepers should be present: all over Donbas, on the demarcation line, on the border with Russia. There was a dispute between the two positions and, theoretically, they could agree somewhere in the middle though they postponed it,” the official said.

According to him, the issue of peacekeepers in Donbas could be raised at the Normandy Four leaders level.

“But then the UN General Secretary will have to send an evaluation mission. Then, he is to ask for budget funding, and then the UN Security Council is to approve this funding,” Reznikov added.

He stressed that Ukraine needs aid, since the OSCE special monitoring mission does not always cope.

To recap, the Deputy Prime Minister declared earlier that the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine is developing a package of bills on the transition period which will include the laws on transitional justice, including amnesty. However, release from punishment will not be universal.

Bohdan Marusyak

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