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Ukraine's Donetsk republic accuses Kiev of planning provocations against OSCE observers

A spokesman for the defense ministry of the self-proclaimed republic has warned the OSCE mission about the threat of such actions

MOSCOW, January 28. /TASS/. Ukraine’s armed forces are in preparations for subversive action and terrorist attacks against observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), seeking to then blame them on militias of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk republics, a spokesman for the Donetsk republic defense ministry said on Wednesday.

"Information received by our command from reliable sources … causes major concern," Eduard Basurin said, citing reports about planned attacks.

"We are warning the OSCE mission about the threat of such actions from the Ukrainian side, and rest responsibility for their negative aftermath upon the Ukrainian leadership," the Donetsk News Agency quoted the spokesman as saying.

The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine was deployed in late March 2014 and its mandate has been extended until March 31, 2016. The mission’s tasks are to observe and report in an objective way on the situation in Ukraine and facilitate dialogue among the conflicting parties.