LVIV - Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said he hopes that a 24-hour OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) observation center will be set up in the village of Shyrokyne (near Mariupol) soon.
“There have been talks on a 24-hour OSCE observation centre in Shyrokyne, and we hope that in the coming days under joint efforts with our partners we’ll achieve this,” Poroshenko said after attending the opening ceremony of the Ukraine-U.S. Fearless Guardian military exercise in Yavoriv district, Lviv Oblast on April 20.
He said that the observation centre would be “an independent voice on what Ukrainians do and how consistently they fulfill the [Minsk] agreements and, on the other hand, how both the terrorists and Russia brutally break them.”
Poroshenko said the experience obtained in Shyrokyne would be used for Donetsk airport as well.
“Experience, which we’ll obtain in Shyrokyne, will be used for Donetsk, Donetsk airport, we’ll use all possible levers to ensure peace and order along all the conflict line,” he said.
Poroshenko went on to say that discussing a peacekeeping mission to Donbas is still important, but under the framework of the OSCE SMM, Ukraine is interested in increasing the number of OSCE monitors, their technical equipment, and their right to inspect any areas they wish.
