INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
RussianForeign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated Moscow would oppose the deployment of Western peacekeeping forces to Ukraine as part of any
settlement to end the nearly three-year conflict.French President Emmanuel Macron and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk previously this
month floated the idea of stationing foreign soldiers to impose a potential peace offer in between Russia and Ukraine.In an interview
released Monday by Russias Foreign Ministry, Lavrov told the state-run TASS news agency that Moscow opposed that concept, along with others
being proposed by United States President-elect Donald Trump
We are not pleased with the propositions being voiced by representatives of the president-elect to hold off Ukrainian NATO membership for 20
years and to send out to Ukraine a peacekeeping contingent of British and European forces, Lavrov was quoted as saying.The Kremlin has
previously stated it was too early to speak about peacekeepers
Trump, who goes into workplace on Jan
20, has stated he would have the ability to strike a peace deal within simply 24 hours of ending up being president.The United States
president-elect has yet to propose a concrete strategy but members of his team have floated various ideas, including the deployment of
European soldiers to keep track of any ceasefire along the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line and a prolonged delay on Kyivs ambitions to
sign up with NATO.Both the Russian and Ukrainian presidents have actually eliminated direct talks with each other, and positions in Kyiv and
Moscow appear far apart on what would be acceptable terms for a peace deal.Russian President Vladimir Putin formerly demanded that Ukraine
withdraw its soldiers from four eastern and southern regions that Russia declares to have annexed, while Kyiv has consistently eliminated
delivering area to Moscow in exchange for peace.
