Ukraine to send 50 peacekeeping personnel to Iraq next year

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KIEV, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko signed on
Thursday a decree which said Ukraine will send to Iraq 50 peacekeeping
personnel including soldiers and personnel from national border agency and
the Interior Ministry in 2006.
According to Resolution No. 1483 of the United Nations Security Council
which passed in May 2003, Ukraine's development of long-term cooperative
ties with Iraq is conducive to the maintenance of peace and security, and
accords with Ukraine's national interests and relevant legal regulations,
the decree said.
Ukraine's Defense Minister Anatoly Hrytsenko said earlier in the day
that Ukraine will pull out all of its 927 peacekeeping forces from Iraq
before Dec. 30, as reported by the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency.
The minister added that of the 50 personnel to be sent to Iraq next
year, 30 will be from the armed forces and 20 from the national border
agency and the Interior Ministry.
The scheme of sending the 50 personnel is totally different in nature
from that of the peacekeeping forces in Iraq, said the defense minister,
but he did not elaborate on that.
Ukraine has a 1,650-strong contingent in Iraq, the sixth-largest in the
US-led coalition forces. So far, 18 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in
the country and 33 others wounded.
 
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