UKRAINE-UN-PEACEKEEPERS
Kyiv, May 29 (Interfax-Ukraine) – UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has thanked Ukraine for supporting of the organization’s peacekeeping operations.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kostiantyn Hryschenko met with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon as part of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s visit to the NATO Summit in Chicago on May 25, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry’s spokesman, Oleh Voloshyn, said at a briefing on Tuesday.
“During this conversation, the UN Secretary General thanked Ukraine for its support of UN peacekeeping operations. We are one of the most active participants in [the UN's] peacekeeping operations,” Voloshyn said.
According to him, Ukraine has repeatedly met the request of the UN secretary general to send its peacekeepers to different countries.
May 29 marks the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers.
Currently, 627 Ukrainian servicemen have been deployed on nine UN and NATO missions. A total of 562 Ukrainian peacekeepers are part of the UN peacekeeping contingent in Liberia, Kosovo and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Another 65 Ukrainian peacekeepers are serving in the missions in Southern Sudan, Congo, Transdniestria, Liberia, Kosovo and Afghanistan.
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14:48:09 EET-2
