OSCE Fears That Arming Monitors in Donbass Can Result in Casualties

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The leadership of the OSCE's Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) in Donbass finds the idea of arming their observers to be counterproductive and potentially dangerous, Russia's Permanent Representative to the OSCE Alexander Lukashevich told Sputnik.

"The leadership of the OSCE SMM mission believes that this is a counterproductive idea, as it will not increase the security of monitors, but may lead to casualties among international observers," Lukashevich said.

According to the Russian envoy, the proposal to arm the OSCE mission must be approved by the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine before it can be implemented.

"The concept [of arming the observers] should be developed in the framework of the Contact Group on Ukraine as it is the main mechanism, in which the two opposing sides are represented," he said.

No schemes that stipulate providing weapons to OSCE personnel in Donbas have been agreed on by the sides so far, Lukashevich added.

The idea to arm the OSCE's Special Monitoring Mission in  Donbass was not met with enthusiasm in most European countries and the United States, Lukashevich told Sputnik.

"Most European countries had a tepid reaction to this idea. The Americans reacted quite coolly to all this as well."

While the idea to arm the mission has been voiced by both Ukrainian and Russian politicians, there are no formal discussions on the matter yet within the OSCE, according to the diplomat.

"The idea itself has not been formalized by Ukraine. It has been voiced at a political level, but we are not formally discussing any projects or agreements, we are carrying out discussions on what would happen should an agreement on strengthening the OSCE SMM's functions be reached. There are no such agreements yet. The mission is against forced decisions on any armed component as well. The [OSCE SMM] leadership expects that if such agreements are reached within the Contact Group and approved in the Normandy format, OSCE's executive structures will step in to adapt the legal framework, make the relevant decisions," Lukashevich stated.

Kiev has been conducting a military operation against Donbass independence supporters since spring 2014, when they refused to recognize the new coup-imposed Ukrainian government and declared sovereignty.

The Minsk deal on Ukraine's reconciliation was struck in February 2015 by Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France and later signed by Kiev and the Donbass self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. Both warring parties have repeatedly accused each other of violating the truce despite agreeing to the ceasefire deal.

On June 3, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that the Normandy Quartet, comprising Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine, agreed to deploy the OSCE police mission to Donbass. However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that there was no agreement between the Normandy Quartet leaders on the issue of the OSCE armed mission deployment.