Russian Observers Will Not Be Excluded From OSCE Mission to Ukraine

Russia will keep on participating in the decision-making process in the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s Special Monitoring Mission (OSCE SMM) to Ukraine, the mission's deputy chief monitor told RIA Novosti Saturday.

VIENNA (Sputnik) – On June 1, Maj. Gen. Oleksandr Rozmaznin, Deputy Chief of the Main Command Center of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, said in an interview to Ukraine’s Channel 5 that Russia’s observers should be excluded from the OSCE SMM in Ukraine’s east, citing Moscow's alleged involvement in the conflict.

The following day, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin called such a proposal "politically provocative" and discriminating the OSCE observers based on the national origin principle.

"The Russian Federation is a participating state of the OSCE. The Russian Federation has contributed to the mission both with human and financial resources. And, of course, the Russian Federation is part of the consensus decision to deploy this field operation of the OSCE [in Ukraine], that’s why it is part of both the decision-making process and the mission itself," Alexander Hug told RIA Novosti.

The mission was deployed to Ukraine in March 2014 at the request of Kiev authorities. OSCE experts were tasked with impartially monitoring the conflict between independence supporters and government forces in the country and facilitating dialogue between the warring parties.

OSCE experts currently monitor the ceasefire signed between Kiev and the self-proclaimed republics in eastern Ukraine in mid-February in the Belarusian capital Minsk.