OSCE SMM to expand area of its control over entire territory of Donbass – Kurz

OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Austrian Foreign Affairs Minister Sebastian Kurz is convinced that the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) will continue to perform its functions under the current mandate, will expand areas of its control over the entire territory of Donbas and will primarily control the ceasefire observance. He stated this at a joint briefing with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin in Mariupol on Wednesday, - "112 Ukraina" reports.

"As for the mission, I ask you to be realistic. The OSCE has 57 member states and all the decisions are taken by consensus. It is certainly not easy, and this principle has its drawbacks, but it also has a positive side - we achieve the unity and the cohesion of the organization. The OSCE will do everything so that the mission will operate as efficiently as possible, hold surveillance over the entire territory of Donbas so that the mission's effort should help achieve a complete ceasefire", - Kurz said.

However, the efforts of the OSCE mission alone are not enough, the chairman of the organization said. The efforts of decision makers in Moscow, Kyiv and other countries are needed.

As reported, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin and OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz are visiting Donetsk region on January 3-4. They plan to discuss efficient monitoring and verification of the implementation of the Minsk agreements.