Russia Condemns Ukraine's Call For UN Peacekeepers

(Vatican Radio)-- Russia has rejected a Ukrainian government call for a United Nations peacekeeping force in eastern Ukraine, after pro-Russian separatists overran a strategic railway hub despite a ceasefire agreement. 

The standoff comes amid international tensions over Russian fighter jets intercepted near Britain. 

Listen to the report by Stefan Bos:

Kiev demands an international responds as the separatists hoisted a flag in triumph over the devastated Debaltseve, the stragecis railway town connecting rebel controlled Donetsk and Luhansk, following weeks of fighting. 

Poroshenko said UN peacekeepers would be the best way to prevent more bloodshed in eastern Ukraine.            

"We see the necessity of introducing a peacekeeping contingent in order to secure peace in the Donbass region and control over the Ukrainian-Russian border in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions,” he told reporters in Kiev. 

“We see it as a European Union mission within the framework of the common security and defence policy, as the best option for a peacekeeping operation,” Poroshenko added.

MOSCOW CONCERNED

Yet Russia has already rejected the proposal with Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin calling it "a destructive move". 

Russia would prefer the involvement of Europe's security organization OSCE, explains Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich. “Concerning the withdrawal of heavy weaponry…that process should be facilitated by the OSCE with the support of the contact group”, he explained. 

“The OSCE is also supposed to secure effective monitoring of the verification of the ceasefire regime. We are convinced that the basic responsibility for full scale resolution of the conflict, carrying out the Minsk agreement, rests with the sides involved in the Ukrainian conflict,” Lukashevich said.

The Baltic states and other Eastern European nations fear Russia may expand the conflict to other countries. Russian military airplanes have already been flying on numerous occasions or near European airspace. 

WAR PLANES 

On Wednesday, British warplanes were scrambled after two Russian Bear bombers approached the Cornwall coast, explained British Prime Minister David Cameron. 

"I think what this episode demonstrates is that we do have the fast jets, the pilots, the systems in place to protect the United Kingdom," he said. 

"I suspect what's happening here is the Russians are trying to make some sort of a point. And I don't think we should dignify it with too much of a response," Caremon added.    

Yet for now it remains unclear how the biggest east-west standoff since the Cold War will end.