MOSCOW, June 19. /ITAR-TASS/. It is impossible to guarantee safety for OSCE observers under the conditions of Kiev's punitive operation, but Moscow is ready to assist for the OSCE mission members to be freed, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said on Thursday.

Difficulties in OSCE observers’ work in Ukraine are quite understandable, as the Ukrainian leaders have taken a course aimed at factual suppression of those who disagree with them in the southeast of the country, when bloody punitive actions have become ordinary events, such as the tragedies in Odessa and Mariupol last May, the air strikes against the regional administration in Luhansk, the killing of people in Donetsk, the continuing operations to eliminate Sloviansk and Kramatorsk and the seizure, beating and killing of Russian journalists in Ukraine, the diplomat noted.

"Under the conditions of Kiev's continuing punitive operation in the southeast of Ukraine, it is unlikely possible to fully guarantee safety for OSCE mission members," Lukashevich said, adding that security reasons were the main obstacle to free members of the Donetsk and Luhansk branches of the mission. Among them is a Russian citizen.

Moscow repeatedly expressed concern over the fact and reiterated the readiness to do everything possible to free them from captivity. However, mainly Kiev's authorities are responsible for the incident, and they must stop violence to create conditions for the soonest release of the observers, the Russian diplomat noted.