OSCE Monitoring Mission in Ukraine Should Keep Existing Mandate Unchanged

The mandate of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s Special Monitoring Mission (OSCE SMM) should remain unchanged if it is to be extended, the head of the Task Force for the 2016 German OSCE Chairmanship said Thursday.

KIEV (Sputnik) – OSCE SMM’s mandate in southeastern Ukraine formally expires on March 31.

"We maintain that no changes are needed. This mandate should be extended in the manner and form that existed up to now," Antje Leendertse told reporters after meeting Ukraine’s deputy minister of defense.

OSCE SMM was deployed in southeastern Ukraine to observe the implementation of peace agreements reached by government and pro-independence forces.

The agreements were signed in the Belarusian capital of Minsk with Russian, French and German mediation, first in September 2014 then in February 2015.