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Diplomat slams Kiev’s ‘false’ statement on Russians in OSCE mission

The mission has a total of 1,087 staff members, including 610 international observers

MOSCOW, October 2. /TASS/. The statement of Kiev’s envoy to the Contact Group Irina Geraschenko that the number of Russians in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Special Monitoring Mission has surged over the past year does not correspond to reality, Russia’s representative at the Minsk talks Azamat Kulmukhametov said.

"The number of Russian observers in the SMM over the past year has dropped from 39 to 35. The number of Belarusians and Serbs remains unchanged. A year ago there were 7 Belarusians, and now there are 8. The number of Serbs reduced from 9 to 8," the diplomat said, according to the Foreign Ministry’s website.

The diplomat noted that the mission largely consists of US and EU citizens. "The mission has 59 Americans, 45 Britons and 339 EU citizens. Some 373 Ukrainian citizens have technical posts."

The mission has a total of 1,087 staff members, including 610 international observers, Kulmukhametov said.

"We view Irina Geraschenko’s statement as another manifestation of Kiev’s propaganda line aimed at undermining peaceful settlement of conflict in Donbass, he stressed.