MINSK, April 26. /TASS/. The next meeting of the Contact Group on Ukraine will be held in Minsk, just a few days after the tragic incident in Donbass, where an OSCE mission officer was killed in an anti-tank mine explosion.
The Russian Foreign Ministry noted that the circumstances of the incident indicate a high probability of provocation aimed at undermining the peace process. Such incidents and a general escalation of tension, according to the Ministry, are beneficial for those who are not interested in implementing the political, economic and humanitarian provisions of the Package of Measures included in the Minsk Agreements.
Boris Gryzlov, Russia's representative in the Contact Group, called the incident a diversion, noting that civilians could become victims of the explosion, and promised to review the tragic fact at the next meeting in Minsk.
Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at talks with OSCE Secretary-General Lamberto Zannier that Russia insists on a swift and impartial investigation into incident, when a vehicle of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission struck a mine in eastern Ukraine.
"We will insist on a quick, transparent and impartial investigation involving the SMM (Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine - TASS), the Contact Group and the Joint Center for Ceasefire Control and Coordination," Lavrov said, stressing that there is the need to continue "working in all trajectories."
On April 23, an OSCE SMM car drove over an anti-tank mine near the village of Prishib in the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR). An American paramedic who was part of the patrol was killed and two other SMM monitors, citizens of the Czech Republic and Germany, sustained wounds.