BERLIN, August 18 (RIA Novosti) – Moscow supports the idea of equipping the OSCE monitoring mission with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to enhance their control of the Russian-Ukrainian border, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday.
“The OSCE mission, in line with their mandate, has the right to be equipped with required tools. We are now discussing giving the mission unmanned aerial vehicles for better control of the Ukrainian border from the Ukrainian airspace. We support such an approach,” Lavrov said.
The Russian foreign minister said that OSCE observers, deployed at Russian border crossing points about three weeks ago, have so far failed to register any illegal cross-border movement.
“The monitors continue their work. They report about what they see to Vienna, to the OSCE headquarters. During their stay on the border, they failed to register any illegal cross-border movement,” Lavrov said.
“Ukrainian border guards and customs officers are also staying at the Donetsk crossing points together with the OSCE mission. For the purpose of humanitarian delivery, we are ready to extend their stay there,” he added.
On August 15, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko claimed that the Ukrainian artillery destroyed part of the Russian military hardware that had allegedly crossed into Ukraine at night.
The announcement came soon after a number of foreign news agencies reported that a convoy of military vehicles with Russian license plates crossed into Ukraine via the Izvarino border checkpoint.
The Russian Defense Ministry refuted the allegations, calling the claims a 'fantasy' that is not worth discussing. The Russian Border Guard Service has also stressed that the reports bear no relation to the reality and explained that cross-border regions were indeed being patrolled by mobile teams of border guards but solely on the Russian territory.
On August 17, the Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) working in Ukraine under the auspices of the OSCE also could not confirm the reports of any Russian military convoys crossing the Ukrainian border.
