KIEV, Sept. 21 - President Petro Poroshenko on Thursday said U.S. President Donald Trump had expressed his support for the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers across Ukraine’s eastern conflict zone and along its whole border with Russia, Reuters reported.

After a meeting with Trump in New York, Poroshenko said in a televised briefing: I am extremely satisfied with the current unprecedented level of cooperation between Ukraine and the USA.”

He said Trump supported Ukraine’s proposal to deploy peacekeepers “including on the uncontrolled part of the Ukraine-Russia border, which would prevent the possibility of penetration by Russian troops or Russian weapons.”

Poroshenko on recently dismissed a Russian proposal to deploy U.N. peacekeepers in eastern Ukraine as an effort to legalize its proxies and freeze the conflict.

Relations between Kyiv and Moscow have never been worse since Russia annexed Crimea more than three years ago and Russian-backed separatist fighters subsequently took up arms against Ukrainian government forces in the east of the country.

Russian President Vladimir Putin this month suggested armed U.N. peacekeepers be deployed to eastern Ukraine to help protect cease-fire monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and to help end a conflict between Ukrainian troops and Russia-backed separatists, which has killed more than 10,000 people since 2014.

Poroshenko used his speech at the annual gathering of world leaders for the United Nations General Assembly to accuse Moscow of not contributing to international security, but of being its "biggest threat."

"The latest hybrid peacekeeping proposal from Moscow is yet another example of Russia's real ambition to legalize its proxies and freeze the conflict forever," he said.

"We remain confident that a fully fledged peacekeeping operation is the only viable solution to de-escalate and protect the people of Ukraine."

Putin originally said the peacekeepers should be deployed along the line of contact between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists, but later said they could also be deployed in other areas where OSCE inspectors work.

"The peacekeepers' mandate should cover the entire occupied area, including the Ukrainian-Russian state border. This is the must. As long as the border is used as the main supply route for manpower and weapons to Donbas [Donetsk and Luhansk regions], there will be no peace in my country," Poroshenko said.

Kyiv and Western countries accuse Russia of providing military backing to the insurgency in eastern Ukraine.
Russia denies any direct role in the conflict. (rt/ez)