KIEV, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- The possible deployment of the UN peacekeeping troops in Ukraine's eastern region of Donbas will take at least six months, local media reported on Tuesday, citing Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin.
"If a political decision is taken, it would take between six months and ten months for the UN to deploy the mission, because this is a quite large-scale mission," Klimkin said in an interview to local TV channel ICTV.
Klimkin said he did not rule out that the deployment of the blue helmets in Donbas can take even more time given the differences between Ukraine and Russia over the format of the UN patrol.
The armed confrontation between Ukrainian government troops and pro-independence insurgents in Donbas region has been underway since April 2014, claiming about 10,000 lives.
On Sept. 5, 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow will ask the UN Security Council to send peacekeepers to patrol the contact line in eastern Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Kiev said it would agree to the deployment of a UN patrol only if the troops would be stationed across the whole area controlled by the rebels, including the Ukrainian-Russian border.
