An observer of the Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) of the OSCE in Luhansk region, Maxim Udovichenko, has been revealed to be an employee of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) of the Russian Federation, the TSN news service of the "1+1" TV channel has reported.
A TSN reporter witnessed the observer campaigning for the “Russian world” in Luhansk region.
The TV report mentioned that while working for the SMM, Udovichenko was seen drunk in Severodonetsk restaurants, where he tried to get other observers drunk.
“Later it turned out that the man is not only a member of the mission, but also an officer of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Russian Federation. One moment he was confessing on cameras his love for Ukraine. And the other he was threatening the reporter for filming it,” the TV report said.
Shortly after the incident, the SMM management dismissed the observer for being drunk. “It would be unfair if an incident with one person tarnished the reputation of over 590 international observers” the TSN quoted a representative of the OSCE in Ukraine as saying.
The main office of the OSCE in Austria and its Kyiv office assured that the monitoring groups in Donbas include 32 Russian citizens, “and all of them are professionals.”
In turn, the dismissed representative OSCE SMM monitor told the journalist on camera: “I, Maxim Udovichenko, am an OSCE observer. I did serve in the Russian Armed Forces. Indeed, I am an officer of the Main Intelligence Directorate.”
Udovichenko added that it was easy to get into the special monitoring mission.
The TSN said that neither the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry nor the Ukrainian Security Service knew that there were Russian intelligence officers among the OSCE observers.
“I registered through the Foreign Ministry, was interviewed, passed a written task,” Udovichenko said.
Also according to him, those who chose to stay in Donbas are mostly militants while “his friends moved to Syria.” Udovichenko also said that nobody pressures his fellow soldiers to go to fight in Ukraine. “Nobody forces us,” he said.
Earlier on Tuesday, the OSCE SMM reported on its Facebook page that following last week’s incident involving an OSCE SMM observer in Severodonetsk, who behaved highly inappropriately, the mission took immediate steps the very same day to remove him from the mission.
The SMM said it took the action as the said monitor’s conduct was a clear violation of the OSCE Code of Conduct.
