Russia seeks to create mission hindering OSCE efforts in Donbas, Ukraine’s FM Klimkin says

Russian presidential aide Vladislav Surkov is trying to smooth-talk U.S. Special Envoy on Ukraine Kurt Volker to agree upon a UN peacekeeping mission in the Donbas which in fact will obstruct activities of the OSCE Special Monitoring Commission (SMM).

This was said by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin, Censor.NET reports citing Hromadske.

"It is a hard-nosed negotiation as Russia tries to use deployment of peacekeepers to create a sort of a ‘bodyguard’ mission, which will actually hinder SMM efforts, make them incapable of carrying out even those tasks they perform now," the minister said.

Read more: US advocates UN peacekeeping mission in Donbas with no Russian personnel in it, Secial Envoy Volker says

"They (the Russian authorities - Ed.) are trying to manipulate in order to make us sit down to talk to those they put in charge there, to those who by definition do not represent the Donbas residents," Klimkin said.

On Sept. 5, Russian President Putin said deployment of U.N. peacekeepers in the Donbas was quite appropriate for solving of the conflict in the region, but only along the line of contact and with the aim of protecting the OSCE mission.

Ukraine's representative in Humanitarian subgroup of the Tripartite contact group in Minsk talks, deputy speaker of Ukrainian parliament Iryna Herashchenko commented on Putin's statement and said the Kremlin scenarios will fail; peacekeepers must be introduced across all Russia-occupied territories.