Remarks by Alexander Lukashevich, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the OSCE, at a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council on the situation in Ukraine and the need to implement the Minsk Agreements, Vienna, June 9, 2016
Mr Chairman,
The situation on the line of contact in Donbass is a matter of grave concern. Kiev is doing everything it can to derail the Minsk Agreements, while also cynically trying to shift the blame to the other side.
This night, Ukrainian armed forces carried out a provocation that was clearly planned. They opened fire at residential areas in Donetsk and Makeevka. According to observers from the Joint Centre on Control and Coordination, up to 70 shells with a calibre of over 122 mm were fired.
According to preliminary data, one civilian was killed and 11 wounded, including a three-year-old child, and 15 residential buildings were damaged. This shelling was comparable in terms of its intensity with events in August 2015.
Russia expects the Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) and the Joint Centre on Control and Coordination to investigate and document these firing incidents immediately. It is urgent to curtail provocations of this kind by Kiev. Under the September 29, 2015 Annex to the Package of Measures, Donetsk representatives requested that an extraordinary meeting of the Contact Group be convened in video conference format. However, Ukraine refused to comply. We believe that this behaviour does nothing to bring about de-escalation.
All of these developments are not accidental, and are indicative of consistent actions by Ukraine’s armed forces. It all starts with single shots, followed by the occupation of grey zones to reduce the distance between the conflicting parties, after which massive shelling begins, including the use of heavy weapons and drones for reconnaissance and fire adjustment, and finally an attempt to break the defence near Yasinovataya village took place.
Russia reiterates that the Special Monitoring Mission should be truly impartial and unbiased in its efforts and patrol the safety zone in a transparent and proactive manner. Creating advantages for one of the conflicting parties with the SMM’s help is inadmissible. Even the example of UAVs shows that not only are their routes coordinated with Kiev, but also carefully monitored by the latter. Obviously, SMM observer patrols are subject to no less close scrutiny and surveillance.
It is important to enhance the SMM’s efficiency, build up its potential on the line of contact, deploy an additional number of observers there, and demilitarise the hotspots. The SMM could act as an important deterrent to prevent Ukrainian armed forces from returning to areas that had been demilitarised. We should keep in mind what happened in Shirokino. Since weapons are disappearing in large numbers, mostly from the Ukrainian storage facilities, it seems expedient for observers to be present there around-the-clock.
It is also necessary to pay more attention to the media coverage related to the observers. Public speculation on the prospects for the SMM to evolve into some kind of an armed mission to “ensure order” in territories that are not controlled by Kiev are totally counterproductive. It is even more dangerous to distort the essence of high and top-level discussions or arrangements and indulge in wishful thinking.
As to the political aspects, it is dangerous to distort the sequence outlined in the Package of Measures. Restoring border control is among the last stages in implementing the Minsk Agreements and it will be accomplished after a comprehensive political settlement.
Donbass elections, amnesty, a special status for the Donbass region, Ukraine’s decentralisation and its legitimation in the Constitution with account taken of the specifics of certain areas in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, which are inseparably linked, are all issues of fundamental importance.
All issues related to Donbass elections, including security, as well as the special status and the constitutional reform in the spirit of the Package of Measures, should be coordinated with the Donetsk and Lugansk representatives in the Contact Group. We call on Ukraine to refrain from unilateral and uncoordinated steps.
We emphasise the key importance of Kiev’s direct dialogue with Donetsk and Lugansk, which is essential for a peace settlement of the internal Ukrainian conflict to succeed. Other formats – bilateral contacts, the Normandy Four – are supposed to facilitate the search for constructive solutions but they cannot and should not replace it.
Colleagues,
The publication of the 14th report issued by the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine has forced a number of delegations, specifically the Swiss delegation, to look at the situation in that country in a broader perspective. We cannot but note that the charges of massive human rights violations in Kiev-controlled territories are addressed not only to the nationalist battalions but also to official agencies, including the Security Service of Ukraine. Cases in point are enforced disappearances, arbitrary and secret detention in custody, torture and brutal treatment. Many of these refer to incommunicado detentions in secret prisons, where torture and brutal treatment are regular methods used to obtain confessions or information, or to intimidate or punish a victim.
We also would like to draw your attention to the peculiarities of current Ukrainian justice, which caves in under radicals’ pressure, as was the case, for example, in Odessa. I am referring to the Malinovsky court in Odessa, which has ruled on yet another postponement of its session until June 16. I’d like to ask how the law enforcers in other OSCE member-countries would act in situations involving harsh reprisals against peaceful civilians, as was the case in Odessa in May 2014?
Thank you for your attention.
