Canada demands border access for any Ukraine peacekeepers

BRUSSELS – Canada’s foreign minister says her country would back e a peacekeeping mission in eastern Ukraine but only if it could have access to border areas with Russia.

Chrystia Freeland told reporters in Brussels Tuesday that “a peacekeeping option for the Donbas is possible only if those peacekeepers are on Ukraine’s border.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in September that he would ask the U.N. Security Council to send peacekeepers to patrol the front line in eastern Ukraine, but not the border itself.

More than 10,000 people have been killed in fighting between Ukrainian troops and Russia-backed separatists since 2014.

Freeland conceded that a peacekeeping mission is not likely soon.