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Ukraine’s president calls for deployment of U.N. peacekeeping troops
MOSCOW — 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.”
Given that any such move by the United Nations would require Russian approval in the Security Council, where Moscow holds a veto, the idea of sending peacekeeping troops to Ukraine would seem to be a non-starter.
Turchynov’s appeal came amid mounting accusations, not only in Kiev but in Washington and London, that Russia has instigated and coordinated a spate of armed building takeovers by men in unmarked uniforms that began Saturday. Reuters news agency reported Monday that separatists in the city of Slavyansk have appealed openly to Russia for help on behalf of the “Donetsk People’s Republic.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin is viewing developments in Ukraine “with great concern,” his press secretary, Dmitri Peskov, told reporters Monday.
“Many appeals — addressed personally to Putin, asking to help in this or that way and asking to intervene in this or that way — have been received,” Peskov said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov denied Monday that Russia has any agents in eastern Ukraine, and he said it is the West’s responsibility to restrain the government in Kiev.
“We do not interfere in the internal affairs of Ukraine; it is contrary to our interests,” Lavrov said at a news conference.
Ukraine stymied by a few hundred men with guns - The Washington Post