MOSCOW. April 28 (Interfax) - The decision to create an OSCE police mission in Donbas should be discussed by the "Normandy four" and the contact group in Minsk, Russian envoy to the OSCE Alexander Lukashevich said.
"The OSCE has not discussed that. If that should be discussed, then only with representatives of the parties in Minsk using the mechanisms. In the contact group, in the 'Normandy format', that's where the main decisions should be made, which will then go to the OSCE level for prompt decisions to be made after the high representatives reach agreements," Lukashevich told reporters on Thursday.
"The contact group and the subgroup on security can, and should, discuss these options as a priority," he said.
"The Normandy format, the contact group and its specialized subgroups, primarily the subgroup on security, are the formats where this conversation needs to take place, reaching agreements, naturally, with the forces in the conflict involved," he said.
He said that "issues relating to increasing any military component of this presence [of the OSCE SMM] cannot be resolved in the OSCE without these agreements."
"It is not envisaged by the mandate, and the parties that will guarantee the security of such increased OSCE presence should agree to that, above all," he said.
On April 22, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said a decision on the creation, and deployment, of an armed OSCE police mission in Donbas, would be made in the nearest future.
The self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) spoke against that initiative.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said it does not see Poroshenko's proposal as very realistic.