VLADIMIR. March 26 (Interfax-AVN) - Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Russia is not considering sending peacekeepers to Kosovo.
"There is no point in sending them there with the current UN mandate," Ivanov told reporters in Kovrov in the Vladimir region on Friday.
"The situation in Kosovo now is very alarming. It is nothing other than ethnic cleansing. Illegal armed groups want to create a single-religion entity in Kosovo," he said.
"Until last year, there were Russian peacekeepers in Kosovo, whom we withdrew, because we believed there was no point for them to be present in the region with the current UN mandate," Ivanov said.
"Our peacekeepers saw very well that armed men were walking around in Kosovo and no one was doing anything about it," Ivanov said.