VIENNA, January 25. /TASS/. The lack of any reaction by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to Ukraine’s crimes could lead to the organization's demise, Alexander Lukashevich, Russian permanent representative to the OSCE, said.
"You failed to pay any attention at all to the heinous shelling attack on Donetsk on January 21, the deadliest in all the years of fighting in Donbass. But why? And what about the other terrorist attack that the Kiev regime carried out yesterday, where an Il-76 plane was shot down over Belgorod by a Ukrainian missile launched from the Kharkov Region? <…> What else will it take for the OSCE leadership to take note of these and other crimes and give a clear reaction, condemning them?" he said at a special meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council.
"These past two years have shown that pursuing a head-in-the-sand policy, refusing to see the obvious and deliberately suppressing the truth about the victims of the Kiev regime’s crimes - which is what the North Macedonian And Polish OSCE chairmanships did - will lead nowhere, destroying the OSCE," the Russian envoy pointed out.
Malta took over the OSCE chairmanship in January. A spokesperson for the country’s Foreign Ministry told TASS that Valletta was aware of what had happened to the Russian aircraft but would not comment on the incident as it was awaiting the results of the investigation.
The Ukrainian armed forces shot down an Il-76 military cargo aircraft over Russia's borderline Belgorod Region on January 24. The aircraft was carrying captive Ukrainian military personnel who had been slated to be exchanged in a prisoner swap. The crash killed all 74 people on board, including 65 Ukrainian POWs.