On Friday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that he expects OSCE to deploy a police mission in the near future to control the ceasefire in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.
“It is necessary to understand what we are talking about. Either this is a certain force component of light firearms provided for current observers, or it is a separate armed element that will provide security for elections. Then, it will be a completely different mission…[the presence] of armed monitors will increase tension between the conflicting sides, so monitors can potentially become targets for provocations,” Lukashevich told reporters.
An agreement on the matter may only be reached once all parties understand what is at stake, he added.
On Wednesday, Lukashevich said that the OSCE had not discussed deploying an armed police mission to Ukraine.
Earlier on Thursday, OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier told Sputnik that an armed mission from organization cannot be sent to Ukraine without a full consensus by all the parties involved, including Russia.