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AN AMERICAN MONITOR with the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe died yesterday after a mission patrol vehicle hit a landmine in the Russian-backed separatist east, eliciting sharp words towards Moscow from US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
It marked the first loss for the security body’s Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) since Europe’s only current war broke out more than three years ago.
The OSCE’s announcement about the US monitor’s death saw Kiev and the insurgents quickly trade blame over who was at fault for one of the most diplomatically sensitive episodes in a conflict that has claimed more than 10,000 lives.
The deputy head of the OSCE monitoring mission said the patrol consisted of six members who were travelling in two armoured vehicles near the village of Pryshyb in a rebel-run region of the separatist fiefdom of Lugansk.
“The explosion resulted in the death of an OSCE patrol member, a citizen of the United States,” Alexander Hug told reporters in Kiev.
He also said two others — a German and a Czech national — were wounded and “undergoing further evaluation” in a Lugasnk hospital.
The OSCE said it would not release the names of the casualties until their families had been notified.
“We are determined to continue to implement our mandate,” Hug stressed.
‘Obstacle’ to better ties
Tillerson in a phone conversation Sunday with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Moscow’s actions in eastern Ukraine remain an obstacle to improved US-Russian ties, the State Department said.
“Secretary Tillerson phoned Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko today to discuss his recent trip to Moscow and his message to the Russian leadership that, although the United States is interested in improving relations with Russia, Russia’s actions in eastern Ukraine remain an obstacle,” said acting spokesman Mark Toner.
The statement said Tillerson accepted Poroshenko’s “condolences” for the death of the American.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the blast underscored the need for the warring sides to “finally respect” a long-ignored ceasefire agreement negotiated by Moscow and Kiev with the help of Paris and Berlin in February 2015.
“The separatists supported by Russia who illegally occupy part of Ukrainian territory by violence have a special responsibility here,” Merkel said in a strongly-worded statement.
EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini said the incident was a “reminder of the urgent need for progress on a peaceful resolution of the conflict”.
Both Kiev and the West accuse Moscow of plotting and backing the fighting in reprisal for the February 2014 ouster of Ukraine’s Kremlin-backed leadership.
Russia denies this and in turn accuses the US State Department of fomenting the 2013-14 street protests that ended up allying ex-Soviet Ukraine with the West.
The OSCE team’s 600 members in eastern Ukraine are the only independent monitoring mission in the devastated industrial war zone.
They provide daily reports on the fighting and have drawn the insurgents’ ire for accusing them of being responsible for most violations of the truce deal.
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Is anybody surprised? The rebels ( read Russian forces) for a long time were doing everything to restrict and scare the OSCE mission. Just look at their past reports. 2 Uavs were shot down over the occupied territory as well. And no surprise it done the usual Putin’s way. When all the media busy with the French election.
@Oleksandr Savitskyy: Why no mention from you or the article that it was a land mine they ran over after leaving one of the main roads ? OSCE protocol states only main agreed roads are to be used. This omission of fact leaves it up to the reader assume what the ‘blast’ was and assign blame on the premise of it sounds like a targeted explosion.
If you’re going in detail about violations, why not detail about the Ukrainian militias doing reconnaissance in falsely marked Osce vehicles, Ukranian heavy weaponry clearly in the zone which is supposed to have none, confirmed shelling from that side and armoured vehicles and artillery pieces ‘missing’ from Ukranian storage points where they are supposed to stay when counted by the OSCE compared to the previous visit?
Your constant singular narrative is quite tedious at this stage and the way you only appear on Russia related articles pushing this view would only serve to get you labeled a propagandist or bot if the role was reversed.
@Andy Brown: the word landmine has been in the story from the very start. But yeah, keep barking about “they went down the wrong road” rather than “why is there a landmine on a road?”
@Andy Brown:
You should probably read the OSCE reports themselves – you’ll be getting a far less tainted view than you’re getting from the Kremlin media.
@Dave O Keeffe: There are landmines on the road to kill people – who placed them there and why? who knows? certainly not the Ukranians or those idiots in the White house, because ultimately who really cares a whole lot about this nasty conflict an? An America dies and T-Rex opens his stupid mouth – yet remains silent while thousands have died to date. Anyone who believes that chocolate president is any different from Putin really needs to read something more enlightening.
@Oleksandr Savitskyy: Well if OSCE will go only on main roads what they will see? Read their report http://www.osce.org/special-monitoring-mission-to-ukraine/312971 Read this “was driving near “LPR”-controlled Pryshyb (34km north-west of Luhansk) on a secondary road previously used by the SMM. At 11:17, one of the SMM vehicles (second in line), with three members on board, was severely damaged as a result of an explosion, possibly after coming into contact with a mine.” That road used extensively by locals as well and never exploded except under OSCE vechile? Can you give me report fropm OSCE that ukrainian “militias” were doing reconnaissance in OSCE marked vechiles. Here is report that Russian officer was from “coordination centre” was catch By OSCE wearing OSCE badge which gave him access to Ukrainian military http://www.osce.org/ukraine-smm/125107
@Austin Rock: Beleive me he is different from Putin.
@Oleksandr Savitskyy:
Exactly. Andy also fails to mention that in September 2014 all sides signed an agreement not to deploy landmines and to remove any that had already been laid, yet according to him it’s still OSCE’s fault for ‘being on the wrong road’.
I also notice he doesn’t supply a link to his makey uppey claim that “OSCE protocol states only main roads are to be used”.
It’s pretty telling that one side requested and fully supports the presence of independent monitors on the ground while the other side has tried to block and impede them at every opportunity.
@Andy Brown: I thought that there were international agreements over the ceasation of landmines.
@Chris Kirk:
There’s an agreement between the Ukraine, Russia and the separatist groups to remove landmines if that’s what you’re referring to.
When it comes to the international convention on landmines, the major global military powers (US, Russia, China) are not signatories of those agreements and continue to produce landmines.
@Andy Brown: Hard to believe anything coming out of this region so why would anyone think any of what you have just posted is true?
Around 9,000 people have been killed in Ukraine especially in Donbass yet hear very little about it compare to the war in Syria and Iraq.
Funny you never see Protest groups like stop the War Coalition & other various lefties etc protesting outside Russian embassies etc about this War..
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