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Moscow Could Agree on Certain Police Functions of OSCE Mission to Donbass

© AP Photo / Dmitry LovetskyA member of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) mission to Ukraine watches a drone take off during a test flight near the town of Mariupol, eastern Ukraine, Thursday, Oct. 23, 2014
A member of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) mission to Ukraine watches a drone take off during a test flight near the town of Mariupol, eastern Ukraine, Thursday, Oct. 23, 2014 - Sputnik International
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Russia could agree to the OSCE SMMU specific police functions mission, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

Monitors of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine in Shirokine village, walk along a path on April 14, 2015 on the outskirts of the strategic port city of Mariupol - Sputnik International
Russia Open to Having OSCE Monitors Carry Personal Arms
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia could agree to specific police functions of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) mission to Eastern Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

"[Hand out] fire arms for self-defense. Such a practice exists. We can say that it is an element of [OSCE mission's] police functions, but, first of all, it is protection and monitoring of non-violation of the withdrawal line and [heavy weapons] storage sites," Lavrov told Russia's Vesti v Subbotu weekly news program on the Rossiya television channel.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko speaks during a news conference in Kiev, Ukraine, January 14, 2016 - Sputnik International
Poroshenko Says Normandy Four Agrees OSCE Police Mission in Eastern Ukraine
Lavrov also criticized the recent statements of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who said that the Normandy Quartet, comprising Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine, had agreed to deploy the OSCE police mission to East Ukraine.

"It is always possible to mistake the wish for the reality, but it is unclean to juggle with words said at the highest level in a phone conversation or during personal meetings," Lavrov said pointing out that the leaders of the Normandy Quartet discussed the ways to improve the efficiency of the existing OSCE monitoring mission in Donbass.

The OSCE has been already tasked with monitoring the implementation of the Minsk deal provisions on settling the conflict between Kiev and the pro-independence militias in the country's southeast.

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