No NATO peacekeepers in Donbas unless UNSC decides: diplomat

NATO member states and their partners will only send their troops to Ukraine if the peacekeeping mission is approved by the UN Security Council, Acting Head of the Mission of Ukraine to NATO Yehor Bozhok said in an interview with Ukrainian online newspaper Europeiska Pravda.

"If the UN Security Council approves the peacekeeping mission in Ukraine, I am sure that NATO member states and partners will send us their troops," Bozhok said.

It is noted that there is a clearly defined procedure: members and partners of the Alliance, including Ukraine, deploy their troops in NATO operations and missions, approved by the UN Security Council.

As UNIAN reported earlier, on February 18, the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine decided to address the UN and the EU with an appeal for deployment of peacekeeping operation in Ukraine. The peacekeepers are planned to be deployed along the demarcation line in Donbas and uncontrolled areas of Ukraine's state border with Russia.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that the best format for a peacekeeping force in Donbas would be an EU Police Mission.

On March 2, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree to enact the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of February 18 "On an appeal to the United Nations and the European Union on the deployment of an international peacekeeping and security mission on the territory of Ukraine."

On March 18, Kyiv officially handed over a request to the Council of the European Union to consider the possibility of deploying a peacekeeping mission in eastern Ukraine.

On April 21, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during a telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that the deployment of a peacekeeping mission in Donbas would depend on the decision of the UN Security Council.

On June 25, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a bill into law on amendments to the law on the order of admission and conditions of stationing of the armed forces of other states in the territory of Ukraine.