VIENNA, October 9. /TASS/. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will decide on extending the mandate of its mission at the Russian-Ukrainian border at a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council on October 16, Russia’s Permanent Representative at the OSCE Andrei Kelin said on Thursday. The current term expires on October 23 and it is planned to extend the mission’s mandate for another three months.

Earlier, Kelin’s deputy, Andrey Rudenko, said Russia was ready to extend the mandate of the OSCE mission deployed on the Russian-Ukrainian border for three months more. “In today’s statement we officially said that we are ready to extend the mission’s mandate as it is - at two checkpoints, Donetsk and Gukovo - for three months as a gesture of good will on our side,” he said.

US ambassador to the OSCE, Daniel Baer, told reporters on Thursday that the United States and the European Union called to extend and expand the mission’s mandate to include new checkpoints.