VIENNA, September 03. /ITAR-TASS/. Authorities in Kiev are procrastinating for a whole month already with an authorization of the use of drones by the mission of observers of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in eastern Ukraine, Russia’s permanent representative to the organization, Andrei Kelin said Wednesday.

“The drone project is in a stalemate now because the OSCE secretariat sent all the required documents to Kiev a month ago,” he said. “They were to be signed so that the drones could be brought into action.”

“There’s been not a word from there ever since then,” Kelin said.

“Two medium-capacity drones can function their simultaneously,” he said. “They survey the situation at a distance of ten to thirty kilometers and gather information.”

The important fact about the information thus gathered is that “it remains the property of the mission and will be not be transferred to anyone else.”

“This is an important moment, since apprehensions were voiced that the data might be used in (Ukraine’s) reconnaissance against the East-Ukrainian self-defense forces,” Kelin said.

He indicated along with it that the drones could function only in the conditions of a ceasefire.

A decision to reinforce the OSCE observer mission with unmanned aircraft was taken by the organization in August and Russia supported it.

“We are not in any way against their functioning, as this would be a more efficient method than placing the observers at checkpoints along the perimeter of the Russian-Ukrainian border,” Kelin said.