Russian Rep. to OSCE: Deployment of police mission in Donbas not coordinated yet

Friday, May 27, 2016 - 16:40 (EEST) Section: Latest news

The issue of arming observers of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) or deploying a police mission in Donbas has not been coordinated yet, Russian Permanent Representative to the OSCE Alexander Lukashevich said on Friday, according to TASS.
”The issue of arming SMM observers or deploying a police mission in Donbas has not been coordinated yet despite what some Ukrainian representatives say,” Lukashevich said. ”It should be resolved in the framework of the Contact Group with Donbas representatives,” he said, TASS reports.
”Unilateral statements and propagandistic attacks considerably exacerbate conditions for work of the OSCE, complicate cooperation with local authorities,” Lukashevich said.
”It is necessary to coordinate modalities of local elections in Donbas and amendments to the law on special status of the region, implement the Package of measures on pardoning and amnesty by adopting a law that bans persecution and punishment of persons over events that occurred in separate regions of Ukraine`s Donetsk and Luhansk regions,” the diplomat noted.
”It is rational to do this in a single package. To hold a comprehensive constitutional reform. Constructive proposals on this issue were handed to our colleagues in the Normandy Four and members of the Contact Group and its subgroups are familiar with them,” he said.
Lukashevich reminded that the Package of measures envisages restoration of complete control over state border by Ukraine ”on the first day after local elections.”
As UNIAN reported earlier, on May 24, the president`s press service reported that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had had a telephone conversation in Normandy format.
The leaders of Ukraine, France, Germany and Russia have expressed support for the deployment of the OSCE police mission in Donbas and the beginning of consultations on this issue.
Meanwhile, Russia argues the upgraded OSCE mission should be deployed on the demarcation line in Donbas but not on the border between Russia and Ukraine.