Serbia’s Defence Ministry has declined to respond to questions about whether Serbia will send peacekeepers to eastern Ukraine, as Kurt Volker, the US Special Representative for Ukraine, has suggested it will.
“A number of states have already stated that they will be ready to contribute. This was announced by Sweden, Finland, Austria, Belarus, Serbia and Turkey,” Volker told a Russian radio station Echo of Moscow.
“This is a good range of countries, including several states that are viewed in Russia more as part of the West, and several states that are considered more in the West as part of the CIS [the Commonwealth of Independent States] space – and I believe that sense of balance would be logical,” Volker said.
He added that any peacekeeping forces in eastern Ukraine should operate under a UN mandate.
The office of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said the US official had discussed the deployment of peacekeepers in the east with him. The two met during the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly.
“Interlocutors discussed the latest developments in the Donbas and the prospects for the deployment of a multinational peacekeeping mission under the aegis of the United Nations in its [Russian] occupied part,” the press release from Kiev said.
Relations between Serbia and Ukraine have been marred by the presence of Serbian mercenaries and fighters among the ranks of the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Many say they joined the rebels because of sympathies with Russia and out of a sense of Orthodox Christian brotherhood. There are also reports that foreigners fighting Ukraine in the east are well paid.
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