Moscow Believes Kiev Forces May Be Behind Firing at OSCE Mission in Donbass

Moscow believes that Ukrainian forces may be behind firing at the monitoring mission from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) last week, Russia’s OSCE envoy said.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – On January 16, the OSCE monitoring mission came under fire near Marinka in the Donetsk region. No one was injured in the incident.

“It is absolutely inadmissible to fire at the observers. We consider statements claiming that Ukrainian forces are not behind the incident in Marinka to be unconvincing,” Alexander Lukashevich said in a statement.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces are increasing their presence by changing the geography of the line of contact in eastern Ukraine, he said.

“The [OSCE] Special Monitoring Mission [in Ukraine] noted at the end of last year the presence of Ukrainian troops in the populated areas of Pavlopol, Pischevik, and Zaitsevo, which were not occupied before [by the military]. The Ukrainian Armed Forces have been gradually increasing their presence there. Apparently, a unilateral change in the geography of the contact line in Donbass happened.”

The return of Kiev's control over the Russian-Ukrainian border depends on the political settlement in the country, Alexander Lukashevich said.

“We will remind once again that the issue of returning control of the border to Kiev directly depends on reaching an overall political settlement,” Alexander Lukashevich said during an OSCE meeting.