11:34 20.06.2016

Armed OSCE mission not discussed in Minsk due to absence of OSCE's mandate

3 min read

The deployment of an armed OSCE police mission to Donbas is not discussed at the security subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group because of the lack of a relevant mandate from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Ukrainian representative to the subgroup, former Ukrainian Prime Minister and former head of the Ukrainian Security Service Yevhen Marchuk said.

"No, this is not discussed. Our group's coordinator is Minister Apakan [OSCE SMM Chief Monitor Ertugrul Apakan]. He is a very serious Turkish diplomat. We asked whether we would discuss this issue. They said they did not have such instructions. We have a mandate approved by 57 OSCE member countries. There is no other mandate," Marchuk said in an interview with Hromadske published on the media portal on Sunday.

The most important thing - a decision made by the OSCE - is absent, he said.

"How many people will this monitoring mission include as it cannot do with just one thousand? What budget will it have as the budget cannot be small? What does 'armed' mean?" Marchuk said, adding that Ukraine and Russia did not see eye-to-eye on those matters.

According to Marchuk, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told him "we agree to handguns, but the Ukrainian side looks farther. Arms mean self-defense. What can they do with a handgun if they are attacked by a machinegun from a distance of 1.5 kilometers? They need armored vehicles, but would it be a transport vehicle or would it carry a machinegun?"

Kyiv wants the international armed mission to control the contact line, heavy weapons storage sites and the Ukraine-Russia border sector which is currently uncontrolled, the Ukrainian representative said.

"So far, the Russians have agreed only to the contact line. At first they agreed to the protection of weapon storage sites, but they absolutely did not agree, and this was formally stated today that the police mission could have no access to the border," Ukrainian representative to the subgroup said.

Marchuk also criticized the idea that armed mission members should participate in the provision of security in local elections in individual districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions if such elections were held.

As to when a decision to create an armed mission to Donbas might be made, Marchuk said "no matter how much we would like that, it could hardly happen before the end of this year."

In his opinion, the armed mission might have a budget of "slightly less than a billion" U.S. dollars.

AD
AD
AD
AD