You're reading: Militants prevent OSCE observers from entering occupied Donbas – diplomat

Separatists militants are preventing OSCE observers from entering occupied territory in Donbas to assess whether elections can be held there, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Ambassador at Large Dmytro Kuleba has said.

“The assessment Mission of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) wasn’t let into the definite regions of Donetsk and Luhansk regions,” he said at a briefing in Kyiv on May 26.

Kuelba said the mission has been deployed in Ukraine from May 17-22, as invited by the country, to assess the security situation in order to ascertain whether local elections can be held.