MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia insists on a prompt and impartial investigation of the deadly Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) car blast in eastern Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday.
"We will insist on a prompt, impartial, transparent investigation involving both the SMM and the Contact Group, and the Joint Coordination Center [for Ceasefire] Monitoring," Lavrov said opening talks with OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier.
On Sunday, law enforcement officials of the 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.
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 Donbass, as well as constitutional reforms that would give a special status to the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics. Despite the agreement brokered by the Normandy Four states (Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine), the ceasefire regime is regularly violated, with both sides accusing each other of multiple breaches, undermining the terms of the accord.
