VIENNA, May 22 (RIA Novosti) – Russian monitors working with the OSCE special mission to Ukraine have noted that not all of their messages have appeared in the mission's final reports, Russia's permanent representative to the OSCE Andrei Kelin said Thursday.
“Russian monitors who participate in the special mission in the east of the country noted that not all of their messages are published, and many are simply crossed out,” Kelin said.
“Because of this, the east is starting to perceive the mission as something negative,” he said, adding that there have been cases when “monitors, including those in Ukraine, report much more than later appears in the mission’s final documents.”
Kelin earlier said that OSCE reports on the mission are often subject to “sterilization.”
Kiev authorities carried out a special operation in eastern Ukraine to suppress the federalization protests that broke out as a reaction to the change of power that occurred in the country in late February after days of clashes in the center of Kiev, resembling a coup. The military operation led to dozens of casualties and wounded.
The Donetsk and Luhansk regions proclaimed themselves people's republics after conducting referendums on their status and autonomy. The self-proclaimed republics announced that they would not participate in Ukraine’s upcoming presidential election on May 25. In the run-up to the elections, federalist and nationalist forces have clashed in several deadly skirmishes in the south and east of the country.
