United Nations International Day of Peacekeepers was established by a resolution of the UN General Assembly on December 11, 2002. It was on this day in 1948 that the UN Security Council established the first peacekeeping mission. Since then, more than 70 peacekeeping operations have been carried out. Over the years, more than 1 million peacekeepers have served under the UN flag.
The geography of active operations primarily covers the African continent and the Middle East.
In Ukraine, the UN International Day of Peacekeepers was established by the Presidential Decree “On the International Day of Peacekeepers” dated April 30, 2003.
Ukraine began participating in international peacekeeping and security operations in 1992, following the adoption by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the Resolution “On the Participation of Battalions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the United Nations Peacekeeping Forces in Conflict Zones on the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia.”
The first mission involving Ukrainian military personnel was the operation in Bosnia, where the separate 240th Peacekeeping Battalion was formed. As Colonel General Anatoliy Lopata, then Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, recalls, there was great hope that Ukrainian peacekeepers would help establish peace in the Balkans.
The most significant episode of Ukrainian participation was the rescue of civilians from the Srebrenica enclave, which was surrounded by Serbian troops in July 1995. Thanks to the efforts of Ukrainian peacekeepers, approximately 5,000 Bosnian Muslims were evacuated on 50 buses, saving them from mass extermination.
Over the years of participation in international peacekeeping and security operations, more than 45,000 servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have carried out peacekeeping missions at various times in more than 25 international peacekeeping and security operations in different regions of the world and in 18 different countries. Unfortunately, 58 servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were killed during these operations.
In March 2022, Ukrainian peacekeepers were recalled from around the world to defend their own territory. Today, the “blue helmets” are applying their international combat experience directly on the Ukrainian front lines.
Today, our country, which for decades was an “exporter of security,” itself needs international tools to restore peace.