Germany welcomes Russia’s call for UN Ukraine peacekeepers

Russia will ask the UN Security Council to send peacekeepers to patrol the front line in eastern Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday, a development greeted by Germany as a new opportunity for detente. Fighting between Ukrainian troops and Russia-backed separatists in the region has killed more than 10,000 people since 2014.

A 2015 peace deal brokered by Germany and France helped reduce the scale of fighting, but regular clashes have continued.

The separatists have opposed Ukraine’s suggestion to deploy peacekeepers in the war zone.

Putin told reporters Tuesday that peacekeepers could help ensure safety for international observers who are monitoring the cease-fire.

But he insisted that the peacekeepers should be deployed only along the line separating the rebel-controlled territories and the area under government control where the clashes occur. Russia’s foreign ministry will file a formal request with the UN Security Council, Putin said.

Ukraine’s envoy to the United Nations, Volodymyr Yelchenko, said in comments carried by Russia news agencies on Tuesday that Kyiv is ready to work on the draft resolution. The Ukrainian president’s envoy to peace settlement in the east, Iryna Gerashchenko, however, said earlier on Tuesday that Ukraine would agree to a deployment of the peacekeepers only in the separatist-held territories, not on the contact line.