Two OSCE SMM monitors receiving hospital treatment after vehicle explosion
MOSCOW. April 24 (Interfax) - Two members of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine who were injured as their vehicle was blown up near Luhansk are receiving hospital treatment; both of them sustained quite serious injuries, but their condition is stable and not life-threatening, a spokesman for the Prosecutor General's Office of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) told Interfax.
"Doctors are saying that the injured [monitors] are in moderately severe but stable condition," the spokesman said.
LPR detectives are looking into the incident.
"An inquiry has been launched into a major security incident involving an OSCE patrol vehicle. There is every reason to presume that this incident was not accidental and that Ukrainian security services were behind it. Their goal was to undermine trust between the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission and the republic and to prompt the deployment of armed international units to the Donbas region," he said.
An OSCE SMM vehicle experienced an explosion, likely a mine, in a militia-held area of Ukraine's Luhansk region on Sunday morning. The explosion killed a paramedic from the United States working with the OSCE SMM. The OSCE reported injuries of two monitors. A monitor from Germany suffered a concussion and was taken to a hospital in Luhansk.
