ANKARA
Ukraine’s president, Petro Poroshenko, has signed into law measures which would allow foreign troops to enter the country as a peacekeeping force in Kiev’s conflict with pro-Russia rebels.
The legislation could also, potentially, see Ukraine house weapons of mass destruction – including nuclear devices.
Poroshenko signed the measures, which figure as amendments to existing laws, late on Thursday. The changes allow foreign troops to participate in an eventual peacekeeping force, so long as the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine approve the admission.
Other amendments establish provisions for the potential deployment of nuclear devices and other types of weapons of mass destruction on the condition that Ukraine will monitor their stay on its territory.
Poroshenko has repeatedly insisted on Ukraine's right to ask the UN Security Council to deploy a peacekeeping force in an effort to control the conflict that has killed more than 6,500, according to UN statistics.
Russia has refused Kiev this right, demanding that any request for a peacekeeping force come from both sides, that is, from pro-Russian separatist rebels as well.
Meanwhile, fighting continues in the eastern region of the country. Rebel forces shelled the army's positions on 86 occasions in the past 24 hours, including 50 times near Donetsk, according to Ukraine’s military press center.
Despite a cease-fire agreement signed in Belarus' capital Minsk on Feb. 12, fighting has gone on continuously in the eastern region of Ukraine, according to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
