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Lavrov blasts Poroshenko’s bid to bring in UN peacekeepers as ploy for Donbass’ occupation

Earlier, the Ukrainian president once again declared that only a multinational peacekeeping operation under a UN mandate could contribute to the establishment of a truce in Donbass

MOSCOW, February 21. / TASS /. Carrying out the proposal of Ukraine's President Pyotr Poroshenko to introduce UN armed forces would mean the occupation of Donbass, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at Thursday’s briefing for the Association of European Businesses (AEB).

The Russian top diplomat recalled that according to the Minsk accords, the territory of Donbass should have the right to self-government and have their own administration of law and order. "And now President Poroshenko declares that the only way to solve the Donbass quagmire is to introduce UN armed forces there, along the entire perimeter, even on the border with Russia, essentially to occupy it," Lavrov emphasized.

"And it says in the Minsk agreements, that the border with Russia will be under the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian leadership only at the very end, when the region receives its special status, when elections are held there and when all this is fulfilled," he explained. "And he [Poroshenko] wants it right at the beginning," the Russian diplomat added.

Earlier, when the Ukrainian president spoke at the UN General Assembly, he once again declared that only a multinational peacekeeping operation under a UN mandate could contribute to the establishment of a truce in Donbass.