EU mulls sending observers to Ukraine: source

(BRUSSELS) - The European Union is considering the rapid deployment of several hundred international observers to Ukraine, a diplomatic source in Brussels said on Thursday.

The initiative would reassure "the rest of the world, and other countries neighbouring Ukraine, that no minority is today being persecuted, that there are no pogroms in Ukraine, as some articles and political declarations would have it," the source said.

Russia has justified its absorption of Crimea by saying it needs to protect Ukraine's Russian-speaking minority after the overthrow of president Victor Yanukovych in February.

The mission would be deployed "as quickly as possible" and outside the normal framework of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the source said.

This was because OSCE member Russia had either vetoed efforts to send observers under the regional security grouping or imposed unacceptable conditions, the source said.

"The idea is to send a mission of several hundred people to all parts of Ukraine under the umbrella of the EU, to attest to the fact that there are no legitimate reasons for military intervention on the ground," the source said.

The idea will be discussed during a two-day EU summit which is largely being devoted to the Ukrainian crisis.