A deadly mission

On Sunday near the village of Pryshyb, Luhansk oblast, on the territory controlled by Russian occupation forces, an explosion hit an OSCE car, killing the mission’s representative, a US citizen, and injuring his colleagues. The reason was a landmine. This incident is exceptional, being the first tragedy of this kind that had occurred in Ukraine.

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko urgently published a statement on the need to station UN peacekeepers in Donbas. This was discussed in a telephone conversation with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Various media one by one published statements of deep concern concerning the death of an OSCE Representative. The Foreign Ministry of Russia also issued a reaction, calling the explosion of an OSCE car a provocation “aimed at undermining the process of peaceful settlement of the Donbas conflict.” According to the Ministry, this provocation is beneficial to “those, who are not interested in the implementation of political, economic, and humanitarian provisions of Minsk Agreements.” And of course Moscow wants to arrange negotiations at the level of Kyiv, Donetsk, and Luhansk. That is, the Kremlin once again uses the opportunity to mention the desire for direct talks between Kyiv and Kremlin’s puppets, which would actually recognize them as a party in the process. The cynicism of the statements of the Russian side is not surprising, and yet the international community in their reactions should first focus on the root cause of such tragedies. Before Russia invaded Ukraine, there had been no war, no ATO, and nobody could imagine the thousands of deaths. But who has been consequently accused by the OSCE?

REUTERS photo

Alexander Hug, Principal Deputy Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, said that laying of mines on the roads used for patrolling by the organization is contrary to the 2014 Minsk memorandum and called on all parties to de-mine the territory. The pro-Russian “LNR” bandits stated that the car “deviated from the main route and was moving by secondary roads.” That is, it went on a minefield, laid by the Russians. Sebastian Kurz, chair of the OSCE and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Austria, said that the organization’s operation “is too often hampered by threats, restriction of access by misinformation or destruction of technical means.” On Monday, April 24, OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier said that they “began investigating the incident and expects maximum cooperation with all interested parties.” With that, Zannier laid the responsibility for the tragedy “on both sides.”