You're reading: Parubiy: Russia trying to hide Russian troops in Crimea from OSCE

Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Secretary Andriy Parubiy has said that Russia is trying to redeploy its troops in Crimea so that the OSCE mission cannot record their presence.

“It’s obvious that the so-called self-defense units were only a
cover. The most active actions were carried out by special forces and
Russian servicemen. And they do not even hide this in conversations with
our military and our military units,” he said at a briefing on
Wednesday.

“For us there’s no question that there are Russian troops. Of course
they are there. Of course, they stand near our [military] units. And
even last night, when it became known that an OSCE mission would go to
Crimea, they are trying to redeploy so that only the forces that are
part of the Black Sea Fleet remain, while those who were sent from
Russia – not from the Russian Black Sea Fleet – they are trying to get
them back to the bases so that the OSCE cannot record their presence.
But Russian Black Sea Fleet troops and Russian troops were and are
deployed on the Crimean peninsula,” Parubiy said.