Monday, November 13, 2017

U.S. And Russian Envoys Meet To Discuss A U.N. Peacekeeping Force For Ukraine

Kurt Volker, the U.S. special representative for Ukraine negotiations, last met Kremlin aide Vladislav Surkov on October 7 in Belgrade.

RFE: U.S., Russia Envoys To Discuss Peacekeeping Force For Ukraine

The U.S. envoy for efforts to end the Ukrainian conflict, Kurt Volker, is set to meet with Kremlin aide Vladislav Surkov on November 13 to explore deploying United Nations peacekeepers to eastern Ukraine.

Volker has said he would meet Surkov in Serbia’s capital, Belgrade, for a “discussion of principles” to see if they can agree on what a peacekeeping force might look like.

“We are not in agreement on this yet,” he told reporters in Washington on November 3.

Fighting between Kyiv government forces and Russia-backed separatists who hold parts of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions has killed more than 10,000 people since April 2014. Several cease-fire deals announced as part of the Minsk accords -- September 2014 and February 2015 pacts aimed to resolve the conflict -- have reduced fighting but not stopped it.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: Aside from these exploratory talks involving U.S. and Russian diplomats on sending a UN peacekeeping force, there is also talk in Canada to send Canadian peacekeepers to Ukraine .... No promises, but lots of talk about Canadian peacekeepers in Ukraine (Toronto Star). What's my take .... absent any agreement with the pro-Russian militias in eastern Ukraine that would permit these UN peace-keepers to patrol the conflict zone, this deployment will only result in dead peace-keepers. And from what I have been reading, everyone is ignoring  (Moscow included) on what these pro-Ukrainian/Russian militias want.

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