Ukraine's foreign minister demands presence of OSCE police mission in Donbas
KYIV. April 15 (Interfax) - Kyiv insists on the presence in the special operation zone of an OSCE police mission, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said.
"Without an OSCE police mission, it is generally difficult to speak about security for elections," Klimkin told reporters at the 9th Kyiv security forum in Kyiv on Friday.
He said that "the observers who will come and see how the pre-election process is going will represent the ODIHR, they will not have weapons."
"But we are convinced that the OSCE mission should be armed. Otherwise, how can it fulfill its functions? Any provocation against this mission will prevent the election process from developing further," he said.
The minister added that agreements should be reached on all security conditions before elections are conducted in specific areas of Donbas.
"And on what conditions we will conduct free, fair elections there. There is currently no such agreement because Russia is denying the possibility of conducting free and fair elections in which Ukrainian parties and Ukrainian media can participate. Without that it is impossible to speak about fair elections," Klimkin said.