MOSCOW. May 21 (Interfax) - Moscow is realistic about the readiness of its European partners in the Normandy format to discuss variants of a United Nations peacekeeping mission's deployment to Donbas.
"It is important that for the first time, the Germans [and the French] suggested discussing variants of parameters of a UN peacekeeping mission in Donbas with them," Alexei Chesnakov, the director of the Center for Current Policy, told Interfax.
"Previously they refrained from these discussions, saying that [U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations] Kurt Volker expresses their joint stance. Volker also previously emphasized that he was voicing the stance not only of the United States, but also Europe. Now Germany and France want to participate in negotiations independently," Chesnakov said.
Moscow is ready to discuss the German side's suggestions on a UN mission in the context of a Russia-sponsored UN resolution, the expert said.
"It is necessary to take into account that Moscow is ready to discuss only those German suggestions, which would be based on the Russia-sponsored UN draft resolution in strict correlation with guarantees of Ukraine's implementation of the political package of the Minsk Agreements," he said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at a joint conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier on Friday that "the thought of a UN mission is what we should keep on thinking about, we are coordinating our actions. Foreign ministers should work further in this regard and it would be a good achievement in terms of stabilizing the situation and making room for some political steps," Merkel said.