MOSCOW, July 15 (RIA Novosti) - Moscow’s initiative to place OSCE monitors on the Russia-Ukraine border met with objections from several delegations, including from the United Kingdom, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.
“All these Russian initiatives met with unconstructive approach from some of the OSCE delegations, first of all, the United Kingdom. Those who constantly whip up anti-Russian hysteria at the OSCE, stating the need for urgent measure to de-escalate the situation in the southeast of Ukraine, as the practice shows, are not interested in [these measures] themselves,” the statement said.
The ministry said in a statement Monday that it had invited OSCE monitors to Russia’s Gukovo and Donetsk crossing points on the Russia-Ukraine border as a goodwill gesture, without waiting for a ceasefire regime to be established.
A decision to send monitors to Russia will require an approval by the OSCE’s Permanent Council, which convenes weekly in Vienna.
In July, attacks on Russian border checkpoints intensified. On Sunday, in one of the most recent attacks, one civilian was killed and two others injured when a shell hit a house in Donetsk, a town in Russia’s Rostov Region.
The Russian Foreign Ministry announced Sunday it protests the shelling by Ukraine, calling it a provocation that might have irreversible consequences.
On Tuesday the Russian Defense Ministry invited military attaches from 18 countries, including the United States and Germany, to assess the situation on the Russian-Ukrainian border that has been hit multiple times by Ukrainian artillery.
