US Urges Russia To Allow Free Movement Of OSCE Observers At Ukrainian Border - Mission

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th February, 2021) The US Mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on Thursday urged Moscow to allow the OSCE Observer Mission at the Russia-Ukraine border checkpoints to move without restrictions.

Earlier in the week, the chief of the observer mission, Ambassador Gyorgy Varga presented the latest report on the situation at the border. Later, US Charge d'Affaires Courtney Austrian told the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna that Russia confined the observer mission to specific areas, allowing it to monitor only two out of 11 border crossing points.

"The United States joins the other participating States in calling for a geographic expansion of this important mission.

We further call on Russia to afford the Observer Mission with the unrestricted movement it needs to effectively report on the situation at all Border Crossing Points along the internationally recognized Russia-Ukraine border," Austrian said as quoted by the US mission.

In April 2014, the Ukrainian government launched an offensive against the self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk people's republics, which claimed independence after what they considered to be a coup in Ukraine two months earlier.

The same year, the OSCE established its observer mission at the Russian Checkpoints Gukovo and Donetsk, after a request to the OSCE by the Russian government, to reduce tension in the region.