MOSCOW. Oct 22 (Interfax) - The Special Monitoring Mission of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE SMM) should conduct closer and more intensive monitoring on the conflict line in Donbas following the incident with the detention of Andrei Kosyak, a monitor from the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic (LPR), Russia's Permanent Representative to the OSCE Alexander Lukashevich said.
"The SMM should conduct closer monitoring, it does not only monitor incidents, but also records them, registers them in its reports. There is clear underreporting here, the SMM didn't report to the OSCE countries on that incident [the detention of an LPR monitor by the Ukrainian troops]," Lukashevich said in an interview published in the Friday edition of the Izvestia newspaper.
"One of the main tasks we set the SMM is to considerably intensify monitoring on the contact line, increase patrolling on both sides," the diplomat said.
"A whole number of member states, including Ukraine, are now trying to divert media attention to the Ukrainian-Russian border, to divert attention of the mission from the contact line and the violations that are taking place there. Although the situation on the border - the mission emphasizes that in its reports - is calm and stable, there are no changes in the security situation there," Lukashevich said.
"The current crisis involving the SMM is really hurting the prestige of the mission and our organization in general," he said.
"Sweden, the current chair, or other entities have not reacted in any way to the very explosive situation, although the OSCE mandate states that one of its tasks is to prevent crises. It clearly shows that the OSCE is not fulfilling its mandate in this regard," Lukashevich told the paper.
It was reported in Luhansk on October 13 that the Ukrainian troops had detained Andrei Kosyak, a monitor of the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC) from the LPR, in the area of the Pervomaisk-Zolote checkpoint.
It was reported on October 17 that Donbas militia had detained two OSCE SMM employees in Horlivka, demanding Kosyak's release. On the same day, the OSCE SMM suspended its operations in Donetsk for security reasons due to a rally organized by Donbas residents at the entrance to the Park Inn Hotel, where the OSCE SMM office was located.
The Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group on Donbas settlement regarded the holding of the OSCE SMM monitors in the forward patrol base in Horlivka as hostage-taking.