The mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will continue to work as observers on the territory of Ukraine without stopping. Such a statement was made on February 13 by the secretary general of the organization Helga Schmid.
“I am very grateful for the exceptional work of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission and the Office of the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine. They will continue to carry out their mandates without interruption,” she wrote in Twitter.
Nevertheless, the OSCE confirmed. that some participating countries have withdrawn their observers from the mission in Ukraine. Within a few days they should leave the country, however, as the OSCE SMM assured, the mission will continue to fulfill its mandate with observers stationed in 10 cities of Ukraine.
Earlier in the day, Reuters reported that the US representatives of the OSCE began to leave Donetsk by car because of the threat of “invasion” from Russia.
In response, the representative of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) in the political subgroup, Rodion Miroshnik, noted that the withdrawal of representatives of the EU, the US and the UK from the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) can be regarded as a provocation due to the absence of a real military threat.
The situation was also commented on by the Russian Foreign Ministry. The official representative of the department, Maria Zakharova, said that what is happening in Ukraine is of serious concern to Russia and Moscow calls on the leadership of the organization to stop attempts to manipulate the mission in order to prevent the OSCE from being drawn into the political games being played out.
Western politicians and media representatives continue to spread numerous speculations about allegedly possible Russian aggression against Ukraine. Moscow has repeatedly rejected accusations of an escalation in the situation around Ukraine, saying that it does not threaten anyone. Thus, on February 12, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in an interview with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, said that the propaganda campaign launched by the United States and its allies about “Russian aggression” against Ukraine pursues provocative goals, thereby encouraging the authorities in Kiev to sabotage the Minsk agreements and harmful attempts forceful solution of the “problem of Donbass”.