Ukrainian representative: There are Russian FSB and GRU officers in the OSCE Mission
The Ukrainian representative to the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of the ceasefire (JCCC), General Borys Kremenetsky, is certain that the Russian officers assigned to the OSCE mission are career officers of the Russian Special Services, as stated in an interview with Ukrayinska Pravda.
The Major-General admitted that the episode where Ukrainian servicemen did not allow the OSCE patrol to withdraw weapon storage sites until they were sure that there were no Russians involved is a violation, however, he explained why such a situation occurred.
"Let us separate formal and emotional components. Formally speaking, if it is an OSCE representative, he has an OSCE ID – his nationality doesn’t matter. We cannot demand his national passport. There are instructions to all our units regarding how to behave with OSCE patrols."
"But there are cases when the OSCE patrols get to places where they should not be. Of course, there is an emotional component to it."
Kremenetsky is certain that the Russian officers in the OSCE mission are career officers of the Chief Intelligence Directorate or the Federal Security Service (FSB).
"There cannot be any other alternative. They are members of the Mission, and are granted all the privileges and authorities given to the OSCE observers regardless of nationality," Major-General says.
"There are 39 Russian observers among the 652 observers in the OSCE. We have no guarantees that other countries are not providing information. There are many former officers from other countries who in the past, were enrolled at Soviet military institutions. If we notice an observer doing something suspicious, we will report it,” he noted.
Kremenetsky says that there were cases where after these issues, observers left mission and went home.