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EU foreign ministers will discuss Ukraine’s request for police mission in Donbas

According to a diplomatic source, the issue "requires thorough discussions"

BRUSSELS, March 16. /TASS/. The official agenda of the EU foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday for the first time over a long time does not have an item on the situation in Ukraine, and the key topic would be North Africa. However, foreign ministers of 28 countries will discuss Kiev’s request of March 14 for sending a police mission over to Ukraine’s south-east, a European source told TASS.

"The European External Action Service (EEAS) has received a letter from Ukraine’s foreign minister asking to send over to that country’s east of a European mission in the framework of the common foreign policy and the EU security policy," the source said.

The diplomat said the issue "requires thorough discussions."

The EU’s current priority is offering maximum support in personnel, equipment and information for the OSCE monitoring mission with the purpose of establishing stable peace in Ukraine.

A European military source told TASS the biggest problem around "unarmed police mission of the EU" in Donbas is "the lack of clear guarantees for security of the European specialists from all participants in the conflict."

The meeting of foreign ministers will be a key element of preparations for the EU summit due in Brussels on March 19-20. In the context of continuing implementation of the Minsk agreements, a discussion on future of the sanctions against Russia is most probable at the EU’s next summit due in June.