VIENNA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th September, 2018) Russian Permanent Representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Alexander Lukashevich expressed hope on Monday that the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) of the organization in Ukraine will strengthen surveillance over the situation in Donbas amid Kiev's reportedly upcoming offensive after murder of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) leader Alexander Zakharchenko.
On Saturday, a day after Zakharchenko died in a cafe explosion, Eduard Basurin, the deputy commander and spokesman of the DPR Operational Command, said that Ukrainian security forces may launch an offensive in Donbas on September 14.
"I hope that the SMM will monitor the actions of the Kiev military, which after this terrorist act [murder of Zakharchenko] indicated their desire to increase military activity in a number of areas on the contact line," Lukashevich told Sputnik.
Moscow hopes that the SMM will more clearly capture the real situation on the ground, according to the Russian representative.
"We very much hope that the mission will correct the current imbalances, and will more clearly record the real situation on the ground. Our attitude toward the mission and its activities, which we have always supported and are supporting, will depend to a large extent on this," Lukashevich said.
On Friday, Zakharchenko and his bodyguard were killed in a bomb blast in a cafe in the center of DPR capital of Donetsk, according to the DPR authorities. Eleven others were reportedly injured.
The conflict in Donbas started in 2014, when Kiev launched a military operation against self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics after they refused to recognize the new government in Kiev that came to power after what they considered to be a coup. In February 2015, the warring parties signed the Minsk peace accords to end the hostilities in the region, but the situation has remained tense, with both parties accusing each other of ceasefire violations.
