DPR rejects Poroshenko's idea of international peacekeepers in Donbas
ILOVAYSK (Donetsk region). March 29 (Interfax) - The self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic has opposed the deployment of any peacekeeping contingent for the purposes of holding Donbas elections.
"We reiterate that there is the Package of Measures and it has been signed. The OSCE SMM is vested with verification and control. No other peacekeepers, either the UN, or the EU or some other police missions, have been envisaged," DPR negotiator Denis Pushilin told the press in his comments on Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's statement regarding peacekeepers.
"We need an international contingent, which will ensure security during the withdrawal and the transfer of power," Poroshenko told residents of Mykolaivka in the Donetsk region on Monday.
"Perhaps, Poroshenko wants to reverse the situation or he may say so to calm down the domestic audience," Pushilin said.
The DPR does not mind the idea of holding elections before July 2016. "We are not against holding the elections before July 2016, as German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier is insisting. We have done everything on our part," he said.