18:27 26.09.2017

Kyiv demands Russia ensure security of OSCE mission in Donbas

2 min read
Kyiv demands Russia ensure security of OSCE mission in Donbas

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has demanded that Russia urgently ensure the absolute security of the personnel, sites and property of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (OSCE SMM) in the temporarily occupied territory of Donbas.

"The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry is extremely concerned about reports indicating that on September 24, 2017, the Russian Federation and Russian-controlled militants of illegal armed groups operating in the temporarily occupied territory of certain districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine removed security from the sites of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (OSCE SMM)," the ministry said in a statement released by its press service on Tuesday.

Kyiv sees such a decision by Moscow as the continuation of the deliberate practice of intimidating the mission's monitors.

"Undoubtedly, these deliberate steps are intended, among other things, to provide additional artificial arguments in favor of the initiative proposed by Russia and not supported by Ukraine and its international partners to deploy UN peacekeeping forces exclusively for the protection of OSCE SMM personnel along the disengagement line," reads the statement.

The ministry said that guarantees of the security of the SMM monitors performing their duties as determined by the mission's mandate were among the key obligations in the context of the implementation of the Minsk Agreements, which were also signed by Russia as a party to the conflict.

"We demand that the Russian Federation immediately take exhaustive measures to ensure the absolute security of the personnel, sites, and property of the OSCE SMM in the temporarily occupied territory of certain districts in Donetsk and Luhansk regions and provide the mission with full and unimpeded access to all districts temporarily out of the Ukrainian government's control, including the entire uncontrolled section of the Ukrainian-Russian state border," reads the statement.

The Ukrainian part of the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC) had reported earlier on Tuesday that representatives of certain districts in Donetsk region had removed guards from the SMM forward patrol base in Horlivka, which is not controlled by the Ukrainian authorities. It called on the Russian part of the JCCC to facilitate the mission's activities.

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