Media reports of casualties in clashes in Donetsk region are often unconfirmed, Klaus Zillikens, head of the OSCE monitoring mission in eastern Ukraine, has said. There is no evidence of the presence of Russian servicemen in Ukraine, including the Donetsk region, he also said.
“Our experience of the past four weeks shows that rumors or sometimes news of that kind tend to exaggerate the number of casualties. It’s usually smaller,” Zillikens said in an interview with Ekho Moskvy radio.
As an example he spoke of a report of three people being killed in Mariupol. “We could confirm only one. One is already much, of course. Yet, on the other hand, the conflict doesn’t seem to be as tragic as we sometimes see it portrayed on the Internet and in the news. And that is already good,” Zillikens said.
He said that the OSCE mission had no information about the exact number of casualties in the clashes in Ukraine.
As for the suspected presence of Russian servicemen in Ukraine, Zillikens said that “there are signs that foreign consultants worked and operated in the Ukrainian territory, but no clear evidence of that”.
“Perhaps, we will get such evidence tomorrow. I don’t rule that out. But so far, there is none. Only signs. Precisely such information, such a picture we present and report to Kyiv,” head of the OSCE mission in Donetsk said.
