MOSCOW, November 20. /TASS/. Shootings at Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) vehicles in war-torn south-east Ukraine give a serious signal for concerns, spokesman of Russian Foreign Ministry Alexander Lukashevich told a media briefing on Thursday.
“This is already not the first case of such measures taken by Ukrainian law enforcers against international observers,” he said. Members of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine came under Ukrainian gunfire on November 19 in the area of Debaltsevo and Perevalsk on November 18. “These are outrageous cases and we voice protest on this issue, as the receiving party should ensure all necessary security conditions,” the spokesman said.
Chief monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission Ertugrul Apakan told a media briefing in Ukraine’s capital Kiev on Thursday that the OSCE hopes for cooperation with Ukrainian authorities in the investigation of Ukrainian shootings of the mission in eastern Ukraine. Apakan said that shootings were accidental.
OSCE observers are usually moving around Donetsk and Luhansk regions by armoured vehicles. They were not wounded in Ukrainian shootings.