Russia, Germany deny support for armed OSCE police in Donbas

Vitaly Churkin, the Russian permanent representative to the United Nations, dismissed the claim by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko that his government supports the proposal to introduce armed OSCE police forces in the Donbas conflict zone. “It’s no coincidence that one after the other, new ideas come out of the Ukrainian government for a resolution there, whether it’s UN peacekeepers or heavily armed police,” said Churkin during the April 28 UN Security Council meeting, as reported by the UNIAN news agency. “It’s very convenient to first intentionally heighten tensions, and then propose options to resolve them, which have no basis in reality.”

Martin Schaefer, a spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry, also dismissed Poroshenko’s claim that his government supports the proposal to introduce armed OSCE police. Changes to the “absolutely civilian nature” of the OSCE observing mission in Donbas were not discussed with the participation of Germany or France, neither within the framework of the OSCE, nor the Normandy format, he said on April 27, as reported by the Ukrinform news agency.

The Ukrainian government has repeatedly proposed over an extended period the introduction of an armed mission in the Donbas conflict zone, Schaefer said. “But there’s no precedent for such an armed mission,” he said. “It’s hard for us to imagine at the given moment how an armed OSCE mission would look like, whose goal it would be to provide security for elections in regions occupied by separatists.” The introduction of an armed mission would involve “an entire serious of complicated legal, political, practical and military issues,” he said.

Recall, Poroshenko said in an April 24 television interview that his government’s proposal for armed OSCE police in Donbas has the support of Russia, as well as the Normandy format partners, which refers to France and Germany.

Zenon Zawada: The Ukrainian president has a disturbing pattern of making statements “out of left field,” as the Americans say, or with little basis in reality. We didn’t expect him to do so on an issue of international security as sensitive as this.

His lack of responsible leadership in this conflict is beginning to erode Western support for Ukraine, as demonstrated by the April 28 vote in the French lower house of parliament to support a resolution calling on the government to begin lifting economic sanctions against Russia.