Ukraine’s president calls for deployment of U.N. peacekeeping troops [View all]
Source: Washington Post
With pro-Russian militants attacking more buildings in eastern Ukraine Monday and ignoring a government deadline to disperse, Ukraine’s acting president said he would welcome United Nations peacekeepers to help establish order by conducting a “joint counterterrorist operation” with Ukrainian forces.
A statement posted on his official Web site said President Oleksandr Turchynov raised the matter in a telephone call with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, accusing Russia of sending “special units” to eastern Ukraine to “conduct armed seizure of the administrative buildings and threaten lives of hundreds of thousands of our citizens.” He said Russia was repeating the scenario of its takeover of Crimea least month, but he noted that the situation in eastern Ukraine is different “because the majority of people do not want to support separatists.”
Vowing to “fight back (against) terrorism and Russian aggression,” Turchynov raised the prospect of conducting a “joint operation with the U.N. peacekeeping forces” so that the world could “witness the legality” of Ukrainian forces’ actions.
“We do not object and even welcome holding of joint counterterrorist operation in the East,” Turchynov said, according to the statement. It said Ban pledged to “do everything I can for the situation to be resolved peacefully as soon as possible.”
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/as-pro-russian-militants-ignore-deadline-ukraine-vows-to-continue-operation/2014/04/14/2f4bc1fa-c3bb-11e3-bcec-b71ee10e9bc3_story.html
The WP thinks the idea is a non-starter; but if Russia did veto peacekeeping troops, it would put itself on record as wanting a conflict, so I think it couldn't use its veto. The problem would be what country could send troops that would be effective, not threatened by Russian troops, and not a member of NATO - which Russia undoubtedly would object to.
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