U.S. embassy to Ukraine calls for OSCE monitors' unhindered access in Donbas
KYIV. Aug 3 (Interfax) - The U.S. embassy in Kyiv has urged unhampered movement of members of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Donbas throughout Ukraine.
"Intimidation/detainment/delays of #OSCE SMM must stop. SMM's mandate requires full, safe & unhindered access throughout all of Ukraine," the Embassy said on Twitter on Thursday.
A truck carrying OSCE SMM video equipment was detained for more than seven hours near the town of Olenivka in the Volnovakha district of the Donetsk region on August 1.
Darka Olifer, spokesperson for Trilateral Contact Group representative Leonid Kuchma, said after a meeting of the contact group in Minsk on August 2 that Ukraine had urged the negotiating parties to unblock OSCE SMM access to the Russian-Ukrainian border in Donbas, which was being hindered by representatives of certain districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.