KIEV, May 29 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine will continue its participation in international peacekeeping missions despite the conflict in eastern Lugansk and Donetsk regions, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Monday.
"Our country is very proud that Ukrainian servicemen continue to adequately perform peacekeeping tasks and remain a worthy and integral part of international peacekeeping forces," Leonid Holopatyuk, the chief of the ministry's main directorate of military cooperation and peacekeeping operations, said in the statement.
Currently, a total of 448 Ukrainian peacekeepers are serving overseas on nine peacekeeping operations under the leadership of the United Nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Joint Peacekeeping Forces in Moldova's breakaway region of Transnistria, the statement said.
Since 1992, about 42,000 Ukrainian servicemen have participated in 25 international peacekeeping missions and 54 of them lost their lives in service.
On Monday, Ukraine marks the International Day of UN Peacekeepers, which is observed annually on May 29.
The armed conflict in eastern Ukraine has been underway since April 2014, claiming some 10,000 lives.
