Russia says ready to send troops to Unficyp

Russia has expressed readiness to send up to five officers from its armed forces to serve in the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (Unficyp), the country’s Tass New Agency reported on Tuesday.

According to the report, Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed the foreign ministry and the defence ministry to inform the UN Secretariat that Russia is ready to send up to 30 Russian servicemen to the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) and up to five members of the military to the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (Unficyp), the presidential order published on the legal data portal informs.

The document also entrusts the Russian foreign ministry with informing the UN Secretariat of “Russia’s readiness to send up to 5 servicemen of the Russian Armed Forces to the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus as liaison officers, military observers and staff officers,” the presidential order informs.

Unficyp was first deployed in 1964, while half of its funding is currently covered by Cyprus and Greece.

It is the first UN peacekeeping mission to have three women in charge of its military, police and civilian staff.

Head of Unficyp is Elisabeth Spehar, while its Force Commander is Major General Cheryl Pearce of Australia, and Ann-Kristin Kvilekval from Norway is the force’s Senior Police Adviser.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.