OSCE Mission Car Blast Probe in Ukraine Should Be Depoliticized - Lavrov

Russia advocates for a thorough and rapid investigation of the deadly European security mission car bombing that should not be politicized, Russian Foreign Sergei Lavrov said Monday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Sunday, law enforcement officials of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) said the explosion hit the observers' car near the Pryshyb settlement in the Lugansk region and, as a result, one SMM member was killed. Later in the day, OSCE Principal Deputy Chief Monitor Alexander Hug confirmed the explosion, adding that the blast killed a US citizen and injured two more people from Germany and the Czech Republic.

"We have consensus. We need to collect all the facts not to allow this tragedy to become an excuse for political speculation," Lavrov said after talks with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on the incident.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) on Sunday launched a probe into an explosion in Pryshyb, Lugansk region that killed a US paramedic and injured two patrol members of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM).

Mingareli told reporters that the EU hoped for a full investigation into the incident, but suggested that Brussels would not be a party to the investigation.