Italy condemns any acts of violence in eastern Ukraine, the country’s Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano said on Sunday commenting on the blast that killed a member of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Special Monitoring Mission (SMM).
“I am deeply mourning for the reports coming from eastern Ukraine where an OSCE observer was killed and two others were injured near Luhansk. Italy condemns any acts of violence … The OSCE observers are constantly working to achieve peace and are fulfilling sensitive tasks. That is one of the reasons for all parties to let the OSCE missions act,” Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano said.
Earlier in the day, law enforcement officials of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) said the explosion hit the observers’ car near the Pryshyb settlement in the Luhansk region and, as a result, one SMM member was killed.
Later in the day, OSCE Principal Deputy Chief Monitor Alexander Hug said that the explosion left a US citizen killed and two people – citizens of Germany and the Czech Republic – injured.