MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The secretary general of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe has called for an increase in the number of observers in its monitoring mission in Ukraine to oversee the withdrawal of weapons of 100mm and less on the contact line in the country’s eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk.
OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier said the organization needs to add another 70-80 observers to the already existing 550 to monitor the withdrawal of weapons and their storage for better efficiency.
The OSCE has been overseeing the implementation of ceasefire agreements in eastern Ukraine, which were struck in February 2015 by the Ukrainian, Russian, German and French leaders in Minsk.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said last week that Moscow wanted the OSCE to increase the number of monitors in war-torn eastern Ukraine to a thousand.
The Kremlin said a bigger body of monitors was needed to oversee the implementation of an additional package of ceasefire accords that stipulated the withdrawal of tanks, mortars and artillery with a caliber of under 100mm from the line of contact.
