The new head of the OSCE is dissatisfied with the situation in eastern Ukraine
The Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs and OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Sebastian Kurtz, during his visit to the Donbas, said that the Organization is not satisfied with the current situation in eastern Ukraine, where the armed conflict continues after more than two years.
He stressed that the OSCE is committed, "to step up the efforts to improve the situation," and in order to do so, Austria will allocate an additional 2 million euro for humanitarian aid to the residents of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Those funds will be allocated to organizations who, in their turn, will help people. Such organizations are the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Austrian Catholic charitable foundation Caritas, which intends to expand its staff in eastern Ukraine to up to 1200 people.
Also, the OSCE will strengthen its technical support for the Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine by providing Ukraine with means to monitor the situation round the clock in the Donbas.
Sebastian Kurz, accompanied by the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Pavlo Klimkin, went on a two-day visit to the east of Ukraine. They both visited the Pishchevik checkpoint, located in the Donetsk region, and the special office of the OSCE monitoring mission and water purification plant in Mariupol. The Austrian politician stressed that the parties involved in the conflict must adhere to the Minsk agreement and that a complete ceasefire is necessary for holding free and fair elections in certain districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. At the same time, Kurtz dismissed the possibility of placing an armed OSCE police mission in the Donbas, which is what Ukraine wanted. Last, in order to step up the improvement efforts as promised, the politician planned a trip to Moscow and Kyiv in January, so as to discuss the conflict in the east of Ukraine.