KIEV, November 8 (RIA Novosti, Taras Burnos) - Ukraine will pull out its peacekeeping contingent from Iraq by the end of 2005, replacing the mission with economic aid, a Ukrainian diplomat said Tuesday.
"Ukraine will withdraw its military contingent from Iraq by year's end," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Vasily Filipchuk said at a news conference in the capital city of Kiev.
"Our plans are based on changes in the character of Ukraine's presence in Iraq," he said. "The peacekeeping mission will be replaced by economic aid."
Filipchuk said Ukrainian experts would remain in Iraq after the military pullout because Ukraine "has serious interest in increasing its presence in Iraq in the spheres where it wasn't sufficiently represented."
Ukraine's 950-troop contingent is the fourth-largest in the U.S.-led military coalition and operates under Polish command in southern Iraq.
