The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) has denied the statements made by the administration of the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) on the expulsion from the militia-controlled territory of two OSCE SMM observers allegedly for violations of the Minsk agreements.
Alexander Hug, deputy head of the OSCE mission, said in a statement provided to Interfax-Ukraine on Monday that the SMM does not confirm these statements. In the statement, Hug said the SMM is not a signatory to the Minsk agreements and is working in Luhansk under a mandate issued to it by the OSCE Permanent Council in March 2014. The statement says none of the observers have had to leave the Luhansk Oblast.
Vasily Nikitin, chairman of the commission in charge of the accreditation of international missions in the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic, earlier said the commission had asked two members of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to leave the territory of the Luhansk People’s Republic.
“We have asked two OSCE members to leave the territory of the republic for violations of the Minsk agreements. They have now left the territory of the Luhansk People’s Republic,” Nikitin told Interfax, without specifying the violations for which the OSCE officials were asked to leave the Luhansk People’s Republic.
