Ukraine intends to send a 110-strong special police unit to Kosovo in the near future, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs press center reports. The joint Ukrainian-Polish peacekeeping battalion will also arrive in this hot spot in June 2000.
At present, as The Day’s Viktor VORONIUK was told by Ihor Khaliavynsky, senior officer at Ministry of Defense press center, a Ukrainian peacekeeping contingent is now deployed in Kosovo as part of the 14th helicopter detachment and the 37th detached maintenance company.
“Thirty Ukrainian policemen have been performing functions of the international UN police forces since last October,” Mykola Mykheyev, commander of the Ukrainian contingent of the international UN police force, told The Day. He also said many of them had gained an extensive combat experience in Afghanistan and Bosnia. Their chief mission is to investigate crimes, track criminals, and establish contacts with the populace in order to prevent drug-running, weapons-trafficking, etc.
