A peacekeeping mission in Donbas will be necessary until local elections are held there, after which the responsibility for security in the region will be shifted to the Ukrainian government, United States Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations Kurt Volker said.
There will be a period of deployment to ensure the safe holding of elections, and then a period of Ukraine assuming responsibility for security, he said in an interview with the online publication Left Bank published on Nov.28.
Volker stressed the importance of ensuring security in the crisis area and creating conditions for holding local elections. It could take a few months to compile voter lists, prepare the electoral process, set up relevant administrations, allow an election campaign to take place and candidates and electoral services to appear, and hold these elections, he said, listing the required steps.
Volker said that the transitional period he described is critical and that peacekeepers will need to be stationed in the region until it is complete.
As soon as bodies of power are elected, it will be possible to begin to transfer power to them and to shift responsibility for security in the region to the Ukrainian government, he said.
