A member of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Special Monitoring Mission (SMM), Michael Bociurkiw, has dismissed suspicions that the SMM staff disclosed information about Ukrainian military positions in Donbas.
Speaking on the 112 Ukraine television channel on April 15, Bociurkiw said that those were old allegations, his colleagues are working as a close team and no one passes information to third parties. The newly arrived staff gets training and signs a code of conduct, he said. He stressed that all SMM members work for the Mission and not their home country.
It was reported that a member of the Ukrainian Parliamentary Committee for National Security and Defense, Andriy Teteruk, said that after being visited by the OSCE staff, the Ukrainian positions in Donbas became an instant target.
“This factor is significant enough to stop trusting them because if they are given the right to act as mediators between the warring sides, they must be impartial,” the Ukrainian parliamentarian said.
He said there are pictures showing Donetsk or Luhansk militants traveling in OSCE vehicles.
On Tuesday, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin offered reassurances that Kyiv would investigate each claim of information about Ukrainian positions in the Donbas conflict zone being passed by OSCE SMM observers.
