OSCE decides to shut down Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine

KYIV. April 29 (Interfax-Ukraine) - The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has decided to shut down the Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine.

"OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Foreign Minister of Poland Zbigniew Rau and OSCE Secretary General Helga Maria Schmid have today announced that the OSCE would take immediate steps to implement the closure of the Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine," the OSCE said in a statement. This decision follows the lack of consensus at the OSCE Permanent Council on 31 March 2022 to extend the Mission's mandate, it said.

The OSCE SMM was launched on March 21, 2014, as the Ukrainian government made a respective request and all 57 OSCE member states agreed to do so by consensus. The mission mandate expired on March 31, 2022.