US Fails to Verify Its Statements About Minsk Agreement Violations

United States Department Representative Marie Harf could not name a single accurate source of information, except for the OSCE, based on which the US government concluded that the Minsk agreement was mostly violated by Donbass militia.

US State Department spokesman Marie Harf could not name the sources from which the US Department of State received information about Minsk Agreement violations.

The US officials earlier stated that the Minsk Agreement was mostly violated by Donbass militias.

During a recent briefing, one of the journalists cited data from daily OSCE reports over the past two months, indicating that Donbass militias violated the Minsk Agreement only slightly more often than the Ukrainian army. In one third of the cases, violators have not been identified.

The journalist also mentioned that by the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the conflict zone, the Ukrainian military violated the agreement more often than the Donbass militias.

Replying to the question, from which sources did the State Department receive information about militias’ responsibility "for the vast majority of violations," Marie Harf said: "From various sources, including the OSCE."

"… Every data we receive from the OSCE and other sources of information indicate that the vast majority [of violations] comes from pro-Russian separatists," the representative of the State Department said.

Harf also stated that she has not had any information about the data provided by the journalist, adding that she will examine them separately.