Poroshenko's calls for deployment of UN peacekeepers in Eastern Ukraine have met with Russian criticism.
Poroshenko's calls for deployment of UN peacekeepers in Eastern Ukraine have met with Russian criticism.Reuters

Russia has accused Ukraine of trying to destroy the peace deal achieved in Minsk, after Kiev made appeals for deployment of UN peacekeepers in eastern Ukraine.

Calling the move as destructive, Russia's ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin said that the Ukrainian President's call "raises suspicions that he wants to destroy the Minsk accords" signed a week ago.

A ceasefire was agreed upon in Minsk last week; Ukrainian troops withdrew from the strategic towns of Debaltseve after several rounds of fighting.

Churkin accused Porosheko of trying to seek a new scheme instead of doing what he is expected to do after the peace deal.

"If one proposes new schemes right away, the question arises whether [the accords] will be respected", he said according to the BBC.

This comes even as the leaders of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic described the call for peacekeepers as a "violation" of the peace deal reached in the Belarusian capital last week.

After a night long discussions held among leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France – popularly known as the 'Normandy Four' group – a ceasefire agreement was announced, effective from 15 February.

Proshenko insists that the UN-mandated peacekeepers be deployed in the country's East in order to enforce the ceasefire agreed upon, because fighting continued even after the Minsk accord.

In an emergency meeting of Ukraine's national security and defence council, he said that they would help guarantee security "in a situation where the promise of peace is not being kept."