With pro-Russian militants attacking more buildings in eastern Ukraine Monday and ignoring a government deadline to disperse, Ukraine’s acting president said he would welcome United Nations peacekeepers to help establish order by conducting a “joint counterterrorist operation” with Ukrainian forces.

A statement posted on his official Web site said President Oleksandr Turchynov raised the matter in a telephone call with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, accusing Russia of sending “special units” to eastern Ukraine to “conduct armed seizure of the administrative buildings and threaten lives of hundreds of thousands of our citizens.” He said Russia was repeating the scenario of its takeover of Crimea least month, but he noted that the situation in eastern Ukraine is different “because the majority of people do not want to support separatists.”

Given that any such move by the United Nations would require Russian approval in the Security Council, where Moscow holds a veto, the idea of sending peacekeeping troops to Ukraine would seem to be a non-starter.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/as-pro-russian-militants-ignore-deadline-ukraine-vows-to-continue-operation/2014/04/14/2f4bc1fa-c3bb-11e3-bcec-b71ee10e9bc3_story.html