Risks of the situation escalation in Donbass remain very high – OSCE
The observers of the OSCE mission record a significant reduction in the level of military activity in Donbass last week, but risks of armed conflict escalation, as before, remain very high. First deputy head of the OSCE mission Alexander Hug told that at the briefing, - reports Ukrainska Pravda.
According to him, reduction of combat activity confirms that the parties "can control their people, at least to some extent."
"The risks (of escalation), as before, remain too high, particularly in those areas where the parties are dangerously close to each other," - said Hug.
Now, he said, there is a chance for the parties' to fulfill finally their obligations under the Minsk agreements and withdraw heavy weapons from the danger zone."
Hug emphasized when speaking about parade planned by militant leaders of the "DPR" and "LPR" on May 9th that the historical heritage was important, but the heavy weapons in Luhansk and Donetsk was a violation of the Minsk agreements and posed a threat to people.
"We know from experience that when people interfere with us to carry out monitoring, they usually have something to hide," - said Hug, adding that observers recorded the arrival of weapons in Izvarino, but the patrol that was sent met armed representative of the "LPR" and did not allow to be there.
"The OSCE mission is an unarmed civilian monitoring mission, therefore, attacks and threats against observers should not take place and should be carefully studied. The observers should be allowed to do their job. We need freedom of movement everywhere, to do our work in areas beyond the control of the Ukrainian government is problematic," - said Hug.
He added that the OSCE mission was ready and able to continue to participate in the monitoring to resolve the conflict in Donbass. Now, according to Hug, there are 696 observers in Ukraine, 589 of them are in the east of Ukraine.