MOSCOW, April 30. /TASS/. The Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) of OSCE that monitored the situation in all Ukrainian regions since March 2014 is leaving the territory of Donbass. In accordance with the decision of heads of Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, the SMM activities are prohibited since April 30 and all mission employees must leave the Republics.

The key tasks of the Mission were to observe and report in an impartial and objective way on the situation in Ukraine and to facilitate dialogue among all parties to the crisis, SMM said in its papers. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs gave credit to dedication of the Mission’s staff in the zone of the conflict in Donbass when assessing the eight-year period of its work in Ukraine and noted important practical results, including when supporting security during repairs for the critical regional infrastructure.

At the same time, as official spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova said, professionalism and lack of bias in SMM activities increasingly gave way over time under pressure of Kiev and its Western patrons to the selective approach to facts and the political bias. The last stage of SMM’s work in Donbass was marred by a range of incidents and exposure that seriously undermined confidence of republics in OSCE work and, as the Russian Foreign Ministry said, can completely discredit SMM and senior executives of the OSCE Secretariat.