Moscow supports the idea of creating an armed Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) police mission in eastern Ukraine but cast doubt that such a force could be formed soon.
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on October 24 that President Vladimir Putin "responded with potential consent to the idea of such a mission."
"But for the time being, the OSCE has no understanding of how such a mission can be formed, where it is to be deployed, and so on," Peskov added.
Representatives of the Russia-backed separatist movements in Ukraine's Luhansk and Donetsk regions opposed the deployment of an armed OSCE mission, a spokesman for the separatists said the same day.
The idea of such an OSCE mission was discussed at international talks in Berlin on October 20.
Russia denies providing military support to the separatists in Ukraine, despite mounting evidence provided by Kyiv and the international community that it is doing so.
According to the United Nations, more than 9,600 people have been killed and more than 22,000 injured since the conflict began in April 2014.
