UNIAN
February 20, 2015
Martial law necessary for entry of peacekeepers, says Ukrainian diplomat
The deployment of a peacekeeping mission in Ukraine is impossible without the introduction of martial law, Ukrainian diplomat Roman Bessmertniy said on Ukrainian television’s Espreso.TV channel on Thursday.
“If the president says there is a war, he has to declare martial law as required by law on the legal regime of martial law,” Bessmertniy said.
“After that, the UN and the UN Security Council will have something to talk about. If we carry out an Anti-Terrorist Operation and demand the introduction of ‘blue helmets’ from the Security Council and the UN General Assembly, we substitute definitions in this case. And we accept a parallel decision of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the recognition of Russia as an aggressor. So what is happening?
“It is necessary to draft documents in the UN. And when you sit down to write documents … these words [will] interfere with each other. No one will understand us if we continue to carry out an Anti-Terrorist Operation. In this case, what is the meaning of the Russian aggression, if we are at war against terrorists?”
As reported earlier, on February 18 the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine adopted an appeal to the UN and the EU on the introduction of peacekeepers into Ukraine.
On February 19, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called on German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President François Hollande and Russian President Vladimir Putin to urgently consider the introduction of peacekeepers in the Donbas. At the same time, he said that Ukraine wouldn’t agree to the introduction of Russian troops as part of the UN peacekeeping mission.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that the EU would carefully consider the proposal of Kyiv to send an EU peacekeeping mission to the east of Ukraine to monitor the ceasefire.
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