No Prerequisites for Deployment of Armed OSCE Mission in Donbass - Russian Envoy

There are no prerequisites for the deployment of an armed Organization of the Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) mission in Donbass, Russia's permanent representative to the OSCE said Thursday.

VIENNA (Sputnik) — Following marathon talks with Russian, German and French leaders in Berlin on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko claimed that Moscow had agreed on the need to deploy an armed OSCE mission in Donbass. He said he expected Berlin to raise the issue at the pan-European security organization.

"This is the Ukrainians' invention. There are no prerequisites to deploy a mission of this sort. First, there is no legislation on elections, second, it is unclear what this mission will do, and third, most importantly, Donetsk and Lugansk [People's Republics] will never accept armed international organization representatives," Alexander Lukashevich told RIA Novosti.

Lukashevich expressed skepticism toward the likelihood that the armed mission would be deployed given the work of the OSCE's Special Monitoring Mission (SMM).

Kiev launched a special military operation in Ukraine's southeast in April 2014, after local residents refused to recognize the new Ukrainian authorities, which came to power as a result of a West-sponsored coup.

In February 2015, Kiev forces and Donbass independence supporters signed a peace agreement in the Belarusian capital of Minsk. The deal stipulates a full ceasefire, weapons withdrawal from the line of contact in eastern Ukraine, as well as constitutional reforms that would give a special status to the breakaway Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics.

Despite the agreement, the ceasefire regime is regularly violated, with both sides accusing each other of multiple breaches, undermining the terms of the accord.