UN, March 9. /TASS/. Russia and Ukraine realize the need to deploy a UN mission in eastern Ukraine, Italian foreign minister and OSCE chairperson-in-office Angelino Alfano told the UN Security Council on Thursday.
In his report to the council, Alfano said the future mission should coordinate its actions with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
The official noted "the success of the Special Monitoring Mission of the OSCE, which is a crucial instrument to avoid a dangerous escalation of the crisis despite difficult conditions."
He added that there also was "the acknowledgment - by both Ukraine and Russia - of the need for a UN Support Mission."
"We obviously follow the contacts under way to this end. Coordination with the OSCE is essential, given its extensive experience on the ground," he said. "It’s also important for the UN and the OSCE to complement each other in their different missions."
Last September, Russian President Vladimir Putin put forward an idea of deploying a UN mission along the contact line in Donbass to provide security for the OSCE monitoring mission. Later, he specified that Moscow had no objections against international control in Donbass but it should be agreed directly between Kiev and the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR). Kiev disagrees with the format of the mission proposed by Putin and insists the UN mission should be deployed across Donbass, including that section of the border with Russia.
On March 6, Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia's position on deploying international missions in Eastern Ukraine remains unchanged. "It is impossible to make any decisions about the deployment of international missions without negotiations and without reaching an agreement or consensus with the representatives of the Donbass republics," Peskov explained.