Finnish president calls discussion of peacekeepers in Ukraine premature
It is premature to discuss the idea of sending peacekeepers to Ukraine now, Finnish President Alexander Stubb said on December 17.
"It is not worth getting ahead of ourselves," Finnish broadcaster Yle quoted his statement to journalists ahead of a meeting of leaders of the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) countries in Tallinn.
The Finnish president expressed the view that a UN mandate was needed for the possible dispatch of peacekeepers after a peace agreement. Such an operation should not be launched on a shaky basis, as it happened in Libya in the 1990s, the politician said.
He also specified that he does not consider a peacekeeping operation a realistic option at the moment because of the risk of escalation.
Earlier in the day, Federation Council Deputy Speaker Konstantin Kosachev said that US President-elect Donald Trump would push ahead with plans to deploy a European military contingent in Ukraine for the sake of transferring the costs of the conflict to Europe. He estimated that the European Union might agree even to the detriment of its own interests.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on the eve reiterated the prematurity of discussions on sending peacekeepers to Ukraine as Kiev continues to refuse to negotiate. In her turn, the head of the European diplomacy, Kaja Kallas, said that the EU countries were not discussing such steps.
On 12 December, Reuters quoted its sources as saying that the EU was considering the possibility of creating a coalition to send troops to the Ukrainian territory. The Wall Street Journal wrote at the time that Trump had proposed deploying European military there to monitor the ceasefire.
The special operation to protect Donbass, the start of which Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on February 24, 2022, continues. The decision was made against the backdrop of the worsening situation in the region.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
