A scandal over the work in Ukraine of Russian monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has erupted after one of them was videoed saying he had recently served in Russia's Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU).
The Russian was also videoed using insulting and derogatory language regarding Ukraine.
The OSCE said on Oct. 27 that it had expelled the monitor from its mission in Ukraine, attributing the move to the monitor’s “unprofessional conduct, (and) violations of (the OSCE) code and the principle of impartiality.” The OSCE said the observer had been “apparently inebriated.”
The scandal underscores long-running concerns in Ukraine over the presence of Russian monitors on the OSCE mission in the country.
Critics say that allowing representatives of an aggressor country to monitor the war zone in eastern Ukraine is an absurdity. They also suspect that some of them could be spying for Russia.
However, the OSCE has been reluctant to recognize Russia as a party to the war in eastern Ukraine, despite there being an immense pool of evidence of the presence of Russian weapons, mercenaries and regular troops in the country.
The monitor who triggered the scandal, Maxim Udovichenko, told Ukrainian channel 1+1 in the city of Severodonetsk in Luhansk Oblast that he had served in the 24th special forces brigade of Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), according to footage of the 1+1 television network posted on the Ukraine Today channel’s site on Oct. 27.
“Yes, I served in Russian armed forces…” Udovichenko said in the video footage. “I served in the 24th brigade of special forces. I retired in 2010.”
1+1 also sent the Kyiv Post footage in which Udovichenko explicitly calls himself a “GRU officer” and appears to threaten a 1+1 journalist.
“I served in the Main Intelligence Directorate,” he told the journalist. “Are you out of your mind? You’re messing with the wrong guy.”
Maxim Udovichenko, a Russian monitor of the OSCE, telling television channel 1+1 that he served at Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU).
Udovichenko said he had retired as a lieutenant colonel, and added he had served during the war in Chechnya in 1994. He also lambasted Ukraine.
“Ukraine is a piece of shit,” he told a local resident in the 1+1 footage. “There is great Russia. It’s right nearby.”
1+1 also cited Udovichenko as saying that Russian troops would return to Ukraine.
“The entire armada has gone away to Syria, now you sort it out yourselves,” Udovichenko said in the 1+1 video, apparently referring to Russian regular troops being redeployed from Ukraine to Syria.
Michael Bociurkiw, a spokesman for the OSCE monitoring mission in Ukraine, described the incident as a “very unfortunate and very rare occasion.”
“Whatever his personal views, we’re not going to comment on them,” he told the Kyiv Post.
Shiv Sharma, the OSCE’s media and outreach officer, told the Kyiv Post that the OSCE had to rely on Russia’s good will during the selection of observers.
“We do have a vigorous recruitment procedure in place,” he said. “The problem with seconded staff though is that we rely on the good will of a participating state to select candidates who match the qualifications and skills we are looking for.”
He said, however, that the OSCE had “made it clear on numerous occasions that (contributing states) should second staff who are impartial, independent and up to the job.”
Asked whether representatives of an aggressor country should be part of the OSCE mission, Sharma said there was no consensus on whether Russia was an aggressor country and party to the conflict.
This is not the first time Russian monitors have been accused of serving the Kremlin’s interests.
Last year Dmytro Tymchuk, a Ukrainian political and military analyst, posted a screenshot of the Russian embassy’s website in which Vladimir Likhachyov, an OSCE monitor in Ukraine, is indicated as an employee of the embassy. Tymchuk said Likhachyov’s comments had been used by Russian propaganda to demonize Ukrainian troops.
Tymchuk said Likhachyov was suspected of spying for Russia.
Currently, 32 observers out of the 591-member OSCE mission are from Russia.
In an incident last year, an OSCE vehicle was spotted being used by Kremlin-backed separatists in Donetsk. The organization said it regretted the incident and would prevent such cases in the future.
In April Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said an OSCE vehicle had been used by separatists as a human shield near the village of Shyrokyne in Donetsk Oblast.
The OSCE has also been accused of promoting Kremlin-backed separatists’ interests by calling for the withdrawal of Ukrainian weaponry from Shyrokyne. The organization denies the accusations.
Kyiv Post staff writer Oleg Sukhov can be reached at [email protected].
