MOSCOW. Sept 18 (Interfax) - It is important not to erode the essence of Russia's initiative on deploying peacekeepers in Donbas, and everything will depend on how constructive Kyiv's and Washington's position is, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said.
"President Vladimir Putin and Moscow are consistently pursuing the line toward facilitating a settlement in every possible way. In this context, Russia is one of the guarantor countries of the Minsk Agreements, which, as you know, have not been implemented because of Kyiv's unpreparedness and unwillingness to carry out the unambiguous provisions written in the document signed by all of the relevant countries," Peskov told journalists on Monday.
In commenting on Russia's proposals on deploying peacekeepers to Donbas, Peskov said, "This was President Putin's initiative formulated in the draft [UN Security Council] resolution. It is important not to erode the essence of the Russian proposal. It is about a UN mission ensuring the safety of the OSCE mission members working in Donbas."
"Everything will depend now on how constructive position both Kyiv and the United States assume," he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on September 5 that the presence of UN peacekeepers in Donbas would facilitate the settlement of the conflict in southeastern Ukraine and instructed the Russian Foreign Ministry to submit a relevant draft resolution to the UN Security Council for consideration.
Putin pointed out that the matter could only imply "the function of ensuring the safety of the OSCE employees."