Envoy welcomes Russian idea for UN troops in eastern Ukraine

Russia’s apparent backing for the possible deployment of UN peacekeepers in eastern Ukraine gives negotiators more ideas with which to seek a resolution to the separatist conflict, the US envoy to the Ukraine peace talks has said.

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, last week floated the idea of deploying UN troops to eastern Ukraine in a call with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, suggesting the UN mission could protect observers from the international monitoring mission undertaken by regional security watchdog OSCE.

Asked if he thought this suggestion improved the outlook for ending the fighting, US special envoy Kurt Volker said at the weekend on Saturday: “There’s more on the table now that we can work with.”

“I hope that we’re creative and determined and able to take advantage of it,” he told journalists on the sidelines of the annual Yalta European Strategy conference in Kiev.

Volker, a former US ambassador to Nato, was appointed to his current role on 7 July to help end the conflict between Ukrainian troops and Russia-backed separatists, which has killed more than 10,000 people since 2014.

“The status quo is not good for anybody and I think Russia sees that,” Volker said. “We have a context where the status quo is not stable.”