• About a third of the UN fleet was made up of the eight helicopters from Ukraine.
• Ukraine has already pulled its troops out of the other UN peacekeeping mission.
• The mission is supposed to be coming to an end after 22 years, but no date has been set.

The 250 Ukrainian soldiers who were helping to keep peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as part of a UN mission have gone back home to help fight Russian forces.

When it was announced in March that Ukraine’s aviation unit would be leaving, diplomats warned that the UN mission could be left with very few helicopters.

These are very important in the fight against the rebel groups that live in the dense forests of the east of the DR Congo.

About a third of the UN fleet was made up of the eight helicopters from Ukraine.

Since the Russian invasion in February, Ukraine has already pulled its troops out of the other UN peacekeeping mission where they were working.

As the Ukrainians left DR Congo, Gen. Marcos da Costa, the Brazilian leader of the UN force, said, “Their 10 years of huge contributions were very much appreciated.”

Monusco, the UN mission in DR Congo, is already facing problems there.

It has been criticised by many for not doing enough to bring peace back to the east, where armed groups have been killing, robbing, and stealing gold and diamonds for the past 30 years.

In July, protesters in cities in the eastern part of the DR Congo broke into UN buildings and killed 36 people, including four UN peacekeepers.

The mission is supposed to be coming to an end after 22 years in the country, but no date has been set.

It is one of the UN’s 12 peacekeeping missions and one of the biggest and most expensive.

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