MOSCOW, February 25. /TASS/. Moscow calls on the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) special monitoring mission in Ukraine not to evade fulfilling its functions and start monitoring the heavy weapons’ withdrawal, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

"The Russian Foreign Ministry emphasises that all the provisions of the Package of Measures to Implement the Minsk Agreements, adopted in Minsk on February 12 by the Contact Group on Ukraine and supported by the leaders of Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine must be strictly fulfilled," the document says. "The Russian side welcomes the determination of the Donbas militias to complete the withdrawal of heavy weapons for creating the security zone in accordance of the above document."

The ministry said that the parties to the Minsk agreements on February 12, 2015 urged the OSCE special monitoring mission in Ukraine and the Joint Centre on Control and Coordination (JCCC) to intensify their work, assist and monitor the heavy weapons’ withdrawal.

"Regrettably, the OSCE special monitoring mission in Ukraine, referring to the absence of certain instructions, is unwilling to fulfil its functions and is evading monitoring of the conflict sides’ heavy weapons withdrawal," the ministry said. "We’d like to note that the heavy weapons’ withdrawal plan had been coordinated within the framework of the Joint Centre on Control and Coordination and known to the OSCE mission."

"Moscow expects the OSCE special monitoring mission to immediately start the fulfilment of its functions for the monitoring and verification of the withdrawal of heavy weapons by all sides of the conflict," the Russian Foreign Ministry statement says.