Last year, on September 19 and 20, 2017, Presidents Donald Trump and Petro Poroshenko separately addressed the United Nations General Assembly at its headquarters in New York.
President Trump stated: “…If we desire to lift up our citizens, if we aspire to the approval of history, then we must fulfill our sovereign duties to the people we faithfully represent. We must protect our nations, their interests and their futures. We must reject threats to sovereignty, from Ukraine to the South China Sea. We must uphold respect for law, respect for borders and respect for culture, and the peaceful engagement these allow. And just as the founders of this body intended, we must work together and confront together those who threaten us with chaos, turmoil and terror…”
President Poroshenko underscored the need for a U.N. peacekeeping mission to the Russia-fomented war in the Donbas, with a mandate that would include the entire Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia-backed militants to include the Ukrainian-side of the border with Russia. The peacekeeping mission, he said, could include a parallel operation by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, including its Special Monitoring Mission, which has had its efforts hampered by the Russia-led forces.
Mr. Poroshenko reiterated, “The launch of a peacekeeping operation will enable [Ukraine] to restore justice and not simply cement the [Russian] occupation.”
President Vladimir Putin also proposed a U.N.-led peacekeeping mission to Ukraine, but limited its mandate to the line of contact and did not include the restoration of Ukrainian sovereignty and peace in the region. Observers said that like all of Mr. Putin’s proposals in the past, this latest one was intended to make a long-lasting peace impossible.
Vitaly Portnikov, a Kyiv-based journalist and editor, said there was no reason to hope that Mr. Putin was changing course in Ukraine. Mr. Putin’s declaration shows that he is interested in maintaining Moscow’s control of the region and continuing to work to weaken Ukraine more generally, Mr. Portnikov added. Russia’s constant referral to the Minsk agreements, while denying its own violation of the agreement with regular ceasefire violations and the ongoing supply of heavy weapons, troops and supplies from Russia, is something that would need to change to inspire hope.
However, this change is not in Mr. Putin’s interests, and Russia’s proposal for U.N. peacekeepers would reinforce the expanding Russian border into Ukraine, with U.N. troops as border guards for Russia, Mr. Portnikov said.
“He wants to keep for himself a free hand in the Donbas – and to back that up with a decision by the U.N. Security Council,” Mr. Portnikov said, noting that the most important aspect of Mr. Putin’s proposal is that he says the U.N. peacekeepers can only be introduced if they enter into “direct contact” with Moscow’s puppet states, the so-called “people’s republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk.
This formula would support Mr. Putin’s narrative that the war in the Donbas is not an occupation but “an uprising” or “a civil war.” Ukraine and its Western supporters, argued Mr. Portnikov, must never agree to that.
Sources: “President Trump mentions Ukraine in address to U.N. General Assembly,” (White House Office of the Press Secretary), “Poroshenko seeks peacekeeping mission,” (RFE/RL), “Portnikov: Putin’s peacekeepers proposal is intended to make peace impossible,” by Paul Goble, (Windows on Eurasia), The Ukrainian Weekly, September 24, 2017.