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EU will not send peacekeepers to eastern Ukraine
歐盟不會向烏克蘭派遣維和人員
The European Union will not send peacekeepers to the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Despite calls from Ukraine's president for an armed peacekeeping mission, European leaders ruled out the possibility at a summit in Kiev on Monday. But progress was made on trade links.
Ukraine's president welcomed the European Union's top officials to Kiev on Monday, for talks on deepening trade links and efforts to bring peace to Ukraine.
As Ukraine's Petro Poroshenko sat down for talks with president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker and European Council President Donald Tusk, Kiev's military reported a surge in attacks by pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine.
But despite calls from Kiev for EU peacekeepers to be deployed to Ukraine's war-torn east, the European leaders said it would be impossible,at this point, to deploy any kind of military mission in eastern Ukraine.
But Ukraine did secure backing from the EU leaders that there would be no more delays in implementing a free trade deal.
"I have to reconfirm that we do want - as the European Commission as well as for the European Council, for Donald Tusk - to have the free trade agreement with Ukraine entering into force on January 1, 2016.
This is an important indication because others want to postpone the entering into force of this free trade agreement, but we don't think this would be a wise and a good idea," said Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission.
Russia strongly objects to the so-called "association agreement" and while EU leaders said they were prepared to address some of Russia's concerns, they insisted it is now time to push ahead with the pact.
There will be more high-level talks on Tuesday as Ukrainian leaders showcase their economic reforms to foreign governments.
The EU has offered a rescue package of more than one-and-a-half billion dollars for Ukraine's battered economy. But, in return, it's demanding reforms to clean up Ukrainian politics, business and public finances.
