UN Should Appoint Special Envoy To Donbas To Monitor, Inform - Polish Foreign Minister

UNITED NATIONS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 14th August, 2019) The United Nations should appoint a Special Envoy for Donbas to monitor the situation and inform the international community about developments there, Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz told reporters on Tuesday.

"We proposed to use some other instruments available, one of them would be to establish a Special Envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations to follow what is going on in Donbas and to inform the international community," Czaputowicz said.

Czaputowicz noted that Poland proposed to the UN Security Council last May to proceed with the appointment of a Special Envoy, but the proposal was not welcomed.

Czaputowicz also said that other institutions and formats should be pursued to settle the crisis in the Donbas, including expanding the Normandy contact group by inviting representatives of the United States and the United Kingdom.

In April 2014, the Ukrainian government launched a military operation against the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics, which declared independence after the February 2014 coup in Ukraine.

The warring parties signed a year later the Minsk peace accords to end the hostilities in Donbas, but both sides continue to claim ceasefire violations.

The Normandy format was created in 2014 by Russia, Germany, France, and Ukraine in order to formulate a solution for the crisis in the Donbas.