UPDATE - Poroshenko Says Plans To Start Implementing Kiev's New Missile Program If Re-Elected

KIEV (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th March, 2019) Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who is seeking re-election in the upcoming presidential vote, announced on Sunday that he would start implementing the country's upgraded missile program if he wins the race.

On Sunday, the Ukrainian president attended his campaign rally in Mykhailivs'ka Square in downtown Kiev.

"I will begin the next cadenza with the upgraded military missile program," Poroshenko said at the rally as broadcast by the Pryamiy television channel.

Poroshenko also believes that his victory in the election would force Russian President Vladimir Putin to accept Ukraine's stance on the deployment of a UN peacekeeping mission to the east of Ukraine, where two self-proclaimed republics have been engaged in an armed conflict with Kiev since 2014.

"When Putin sees that Ukrainians voted in the election against those who fall on their knees, against capitulation, he will be forced to accept Ukraine's and the world's stance on the Blue Helmets in Donbas and other our suggestions," the president said.

In early March, the Ukrainian leader said that Kiev reserved the right to create modern and effective weapons systems for self-defense, including new powerful missile systems, following Russia's and the United States' temporary suspension of their major bilateral arms control deal, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.

Poroshenko claimed that the move had made Kiev free of certain restrictions and obligations that were allegedly imposed on the country while the INF Treaty was still in force, adding that Ukraine needed to develop high-precision missiles with an increased range so that they could hit targets far behind enemy lines.

The presidential election in Ukraine is scheduled for March 31.

The armed conflict in Donbas sparked after the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics refused to recognize the authorities that came to power in Kiev as a result of what they consider to be a coup. Despite the existing ceasefire agreements, the conflict has not been resolved so far, with both sides accusing each other of truce breaches.

Kiev has been asking for a UN peacekeeping mission in the region since 2015. Putin supported the idea, stressing that the mission should only ensure the safety of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe monitoring staff in Donbas. Ukraine, however, wants the peacekeepers to be deployed across the whole of the region, up to the Russian border.