Deputy Ambassador of Germany to Ukraine Wolfgang Bindseil believes that the mandate of the Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) of the OSCE in Ukraine should be extended in March of this year.

"The mandate of the SMM should be renewed in March 2016," the diplomat said in Kyiv on Wednesday during a roundtable entitled "Ukraine and the Priorities of the German Chairmanship of the OSCE" organized by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the Ukrainian Center for Independent Political Research.

According to him, it is necessary to support the mandate so that the mission should be able to continue to carry out its functions. The SMM should have access to the entire territory of Donbas, Bindseil said.

Earlier, Deputy Head of the OSCE SMM Alexander Hug expressed his hope that the OSCE Permanent Council will be able to reach a consensus and extend the work of the mission after March 31, 2016.

Ukraine's Foreign Affairs Minister Pavlo Klimkin also supports the idea of extending the activities of the OSCE SMM in Ukraine after March 2016 and expanding the powers of the mission.