Donetsk, Apr 1 - DAN. The Donetsk People’s Republic Office at the Joint Centre for Control and Coordination (JCCC) welcomes the OSCE member-states’ decision to extend the mandate of the Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine by one year, DPR Office Head Ruslan Yakubov told the Donetsk News Agency on Thursday.
“The DPR Office at the JCCC welcomes OSCE SMM mandate extension by one year,” Yakubov said. “We hope that OSCE representatives will find an opportunity to perform one of their basic functions: the recording of the aftermath of ceasefire violations and other violations of the Minsk Agreements and the measures to strengthen them.”
He also expressed the hope that the Mission would remain loyal to its basic principles of impartiality, equality and transparency, and that it would continue its contribution and support in accordance with the established mandate procedures. Yakubov said that the form of interaction between the DPR Office at the JCCC and the Special Monitoring Mission remained the same.
Earlier reports said that the Permanent Council of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe decided to approve the budget and extend the SMM mandate to March 31, 2022.
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The OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) is the world’s largest regional security organisation. It brings together 57 countries of Europe, North America and Central Asia. Every year, one of the member-states chairs the OSCE under the guidance of the foreign minister of that country as chairperson-in-office. This year, the OSCE is chaired by Sweden with Ann Linde being the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office. The OSCE mission was deployed on 21 March 2014, following a request to the OSCE by Ukraine's government and a consensus decision by all 57 OSCE participating states. The Mission comprises about 1,000 monitors. The main office is located in Kiev; the SMM also has offices in Donetsk and Lugansk. The Mission’s mandate has to be extended every year.*jk