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OSCE appoints new head of monitoring mission at Russia-Ukraine border

Flavien Schaller succeeds Simon Eugster, also a Swiss national, who has headed the mission at the border checkpoints of Donetsk and Gukovo since October 2015

ROSTOV ON DON, May 4. /TASS/. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has appointed Flavien Schaller, a Swiss national, as head of its civilian monitoring mission at two Russian-Ukrainian border crossing points, the Rostov regional government’s press service told TASS on Wednesday.

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Flavien Schaller succeeds Simon Eugster, also a Swiss national, who has headed the mission at the border checkpoints of Donetsk and Gukovo since October 2015.

"The work of the OSCE monitoring mission is extremely important," the press service quoted Rostov deputy governor Vadim Artyomov as saying.

According to him, OSCE monitors submit to the OSCE headquarters weekly unbiased reports on the situation on the Russian-Ukrainian border.

The observer mission at the two Russian border crossing points was established in 2014 when up to 30,000 refugees a day came to Russia from the war-torn eastern Ukraine.

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Ukraine crisis OSCE

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