Heraschenko: OSCE observer’s friendly demeanor toward separatists was not a simple coincidence
During a meeting of the Tripartite Contact Group (TCG) in Minsk, Ukraine plans to raise the issue of an "imprudent" OSCE observer who exchanged a friendly greeting with a militant, as stated on Facebook by Iryna Herashchenko, First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada and Ukrainian Humanitarian Envoy to the TCG.
"The OSCE is making justifications for its observer, who, greeted the militants as if they were family. They say this is was just an oversight. Of course, this is not an oversight, but the position of this observer," she said.
At the same time, Herashchenko noted that this is not surprising, because sometimes even OSCE coordinators "take strange positions".
"For example, the OSCE Coordinator for the humanitarian subgroup, Toni Frisch, refused to visit Russian national Ageyev at the Starobelsky prison, saying that ‘it would be a political, not humanitarian visit’," she cited.
"We thank the mission of the OSCE SMM (Special Monitoring Mission) for their important, difficult, dangerous work; but, of course, we will never turn a blind eye to findings of violations of ethics or the principles of independent observation," Herashchenko stressed.
"The Ukrainian side at the TCG in Minsk will, of course, once again pay attention to the ‘imprudent’ observer. Ukraine has repeatedly drawn attention to the composition of the mission, insisting on reducing the number of Russians there. And we will firmly stand on the position that in general Russians should not be in the UN peacekeeping mission," she wrote.