The Kremlin: The Normandy Four did not discuss the deployment of an armed OSCE mission along the border
The Kremlin stated that leaders of the “Normandy Four” countries did not discuss the deployment of the armed OSCE mission in the uncontrolled area of the Ukrainian-Russian border; rather, Russian President Vladimir Putin just gave his “potential consent.” This was stated by the Russian president’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov.
“With regard to some armed police OSCE mission, I’d like to stress – it was only about service weapons, and in the event of such a mission, indeed, Putin responded with potential consent,” Peskov said.
“But these are just talks. There is still no mission or understanding of how the OSCE would form this mission, where to deploy it etc. No talks were held about it, and they could not be held, as it is a very substantive discussion that depends on a variety of circumstances,” he stated.
Peskov noted that “in general, everybody agreed on the potential idea of such a mission, but it does not yet have concrete details.”
Replying to the clarifying question about whether Moscow would agree to deploy the armed OSCE mission in the uncontrolled area of the Ukrainian-Russian border, Peskov said, “Nobody is saying where such a mission could be deployed. It doesn’t exist yet.”
Based on the outcome of the Normandy Summit, all parties agreed to develop a road map for implementing the Minsk Agreements including ensuring safety conditions.
Earlier, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, based on the outcome of the negotiations in the Normandy Format in Berlin, stated that there will be an attempt to “deploy the armed OSCE mission which will ensure security at the time of elections.”