MOSCOW, July 14 (RIA Novosti) – Moscow is introducing a draft document to authorize the deployment of an OSCE monitoring mission on the Russian-Ukrainian border and hopes for its prompt approval, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Monday.
«As the situation in the zone of Kiev’s military operation in eastern Ukraine has deteriorated sharply, the Russian side invites OSCE monitors to its Gukovo and Donetsk crossing points on the Russian-Ukrainian border as a gesture of good will, without waiting for a ceasefire regime to be established," the ministry said in a statement.
«Simultaneously, Russia introduces a draft OSCE Permanent council resolution to deploy the monitors. We expect this document to be approved as soon as possible," the statement reads.
Russia earlier said it is ready for monitoring of the Russian-Ukrainian border if sustainable truce and ceasefire is reached in southeastern Ukraine.
OSCE Chief Monitor in Ukraine Ertugrul Apakan said the mission was ready to undertake new responsibilities envisaged by the declaration of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Germany and France.
Under the document, monitors are allowed to travel to checkpoints between Russian and Ukraine only after truce is achieved and the headquarters in Vienna approves the move.
The citizens of the predominantly Russian-speaking southeastern regions of Ukraine refused to recognize the legitimacy of the country’s interim government and called for federalization and referendums on greater autonomy, with rallies sweeping through the region. In response, the Kiev regime launched a special operation against federalists.
Moscow has repeatedly called on Kiev to realize that in conducting a special operation to crack down on federalization supporters protesting the February coup, Ukraine’s security forces are fighting not against «terrorists» but their own people.
