Envoys from Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine met on Friday for a new round of talks on the implementation of the so-called "package of measures" aimed at ensuring a political solution of the current Ukrainian crisis.
"We recommended unanimously to extend the mandate of the Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, to expand the mission's staff and provide it with necessary equipment," Karasin told reporters after the talks.
The current mission's mandate expires on March 23.
On Thursday, Russia's envoy to the OSCE Andrei Kelin said the organization discussed the extension of the mandate of its Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine for another year, but no final decision was made yet.
The mission was deployed on March 21, 2014 at the request of the Ukrainian government. OSCE experts were tasked with impartially monitoring the conflict between independence supporters and government forces in the country and facilitating dialogue between the warring parties.
Envoys from Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine met on Friday for a new round of talks on the implementation of the so-called "package of measures" aimed at ensuring a political solution of the current Ukrainian crisis.
"Today's discussions showed that a great amount of work has been done, but, unfortunately, the Kiev authorities often fail to implement the measures adopted in Minsk," Karasin told reporters after the talks.
On February 12, the leaders of Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine worked out a set of measures in the Belarusian capital to alleviate the conflict in southeastern Ukraine.
Specifically, the main points of the deal include the implementation of a ceasefire by both sides, in force from February 15, and a heavy weaponry pull-out within two weeks.
Independence militias claim they completed the process on Sunday, thus meeting the deadline imposed by the Minsk deal. The Ukrainian military began the second stage of heavy arms withdrawal from the front lines in the country’s east on Wednesday.
Kiev launched a military offensive on independence supporters in the eastern Ukraine regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in April 2014. The ongoing battles have claimed more than 6,000 civilian lives, according to the latest UN estimates.
