MOSCOW, June 4 (RIA Novosti) — The authorities of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic are unable to guarantee the safety of the OSCE observers working in the region of Donetsk, Republic’s Head Denis Pushilin said Wednesday.
Pushilin added that fears of provocations by Kiev’s forces persisted.
"The current situation is this way: we cannot guarantee their [observers] safety. We pose no [danger] to them … they are now a ‘titbit' for our adversary, [so that] they could kidnap them and blame us," Pushilin said.
He added he did not know exactly the number of monitoring groups working on DPR's territory, but said OSCE was supposed to call them off Wednesday.
The OSCE mission consists of more than 300 people working in eastern Ukraine, where the authorities are conducting a special operation against the self-defense forces who refused to recognize the new government in Kiev. The OSCE Permanent Council decided March 21 to send the monitoring mission to Ukraine for a period of six months.
The OSCE Representative for the National Dialogue on Ukraine Wolfgang Ischinger, appointed as co-moderator of the OSCE round tables in May, was responsible for establishing a dialogue between the Ukrainian government and the self-defense in Kiev, Kharkiv and Mykolaiv. Representatives of the self-proclaimed People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk took no part in the negotiations.
Last month, he called to "intensify the anti-terrorist operation" and proposed to consider withdrawing the OSCE special monitoring mission in Ukraine. The position was heavily condemned by Moscow.
