MOSCOW, March 18. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia proposed not to limit the area of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) mission in Ukraine only by eastern and southern regions of the country.

The OSCE mission should act on the whole territory of Ukraine, not only in the southeast of the country, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters on Tuesday.

“The OSCE is debating an idea of sending a monitoring mission. We take this idea positively so that the mission will work not only in south-eastern Ukraine, but also in other parts of the country,” the Kremlin official noted.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said earlier the OSCE may decide on sending a special OSCE monitoring mission to Ukraine on March 18 or 19. Meanwhile, in her words, OSCE observers should focus on the situation of ethnic minorities.