MOSCOW, October 4. /TASS/. It cannot be ruled out that the civilian peacekeeping operation of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Ukraine may acquire new components, Russia’s OSCE envoy Andrey Kelin told the Rossiya-24 round-the-clock news channel on Friday.

He said the OSCE was now “in the forefront” and the demand for its activities was great.

“It is active not only on the mediatory track, which is the role of the Swiss,” the diplomat said. “It also monitors the conflict and what is happening to human rights and ethnic minorities.”

“The OSCE’s role is very important not only in the Contract Group, but also locally,” Kelin said. “It establishes contacts with the militias. It works for a full-fledged and serious conflict and post-conflict settlement.”

The way I see it, there is unfolding a peacekeeping operation. It is civilian for the time being, but one cannot rule out that it may acquire other components,” Kelin said.

“These are new forms of the organization’s work. It has not operated in this fashion ever before, let alone on such a great scale,” Kelin said. “In the eastern part of Ukraine alone we shall soon have 350 monitors with all necessary equipment and also support personnel and technical means of surveillance. It is major large scale work and very costly, too. It requires millions. We have declared another-money raising campaign and a selection of candidates and equipment.