The German government is demanding the members of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in eastern Ukraine be given unhindered freedom of movement. Restrictions imposed by the separatists contravene the Minsk agreements, stressed federal government spokesperson Steffen Seibert and Federal Foreign Office spokesperson Martin Schäfer at the government press conference.
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In the view of the German side "it has not been agreed nor is it compatible with the mandate" of the Mission that civilian OSCE observers will henceforth only be able to do their work, "on a very limited scale" in the breakaway regions of the so-called people’s republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, reported Federal Foreign Office spokesperson Martin Schäfer at the government press conference. A Russian military advisor had announced this "very obviously on behalf of the Russian separatists.
The German government expects representatives of Russia to use their influence over the separatists such that the work of the Special Monitoring Mission is no longer restricted, underscored federal government spokesperson Steffen Seibert.
"We urgently advocate that the civilian monitoring mission be enabled to perform its important work to prevent military escalation in the crisis-affected area without any restrictions," stressed Martin Schäfer. While in the wake of the fatal incident on 23 April "there might be grounds for limiting freedom of movement – that is a decision that the Special Monitoring Mission should take itself ".
The Ukrainian-Russian Joint Centre for Control and Coordination is supposed to be supporting OSCE observers in their work. Russia, which is a signatory to the Minsk agreements, is called on to exert the influence it has over the separatists to this end.
Referring to the death of an American OSCE observer, Steffen Seibert reiterated, "This incident happened on the territory of the self-proclaimed 'people’s republic of Luhansk'. It should be pointed out that we are still waiting for the incident to be investigated." Those responsible must be called to account and all sides must do their bit to help investigations.
In the wake of the fatal incident on 23 April, the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission scaled back its monitoring activities for security reasons; their mandate covers all of Ukraine. An American OSCE observer was killed when a landmine exploded. Two more OSCE staffers, one German, were injured in the blast.
On 20 May Chancellor Angela Merkel will be meeting Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko at Schloss Meseberg. Looking to the meeting Steffen Seibert stressed how important it is to Germany to "continue the arduous Normandy format process, the results of which are still unsatisfactory".
It is also a question of Ukraine’s reform agenda, however. In this context the spokesperson pointed to sanctions imposed by the Ukrainian government, the President and the National Security and Defence Council on Russian online media. Freedom of information, like freedom of the press and freedom of opinion is a "valuable asset that we should be ready to protect".
Any restrictions imposed on this freedom must be very well considered. "Against the background of ongoing Russian operations to influence public opinion through Russian media platforms in Ukraine, we can certainly see the steps taken by Ukraine primarily as a response," explained Steffen Seibert. Nevertheless it is quite clear, he added, "Steps like this do nothing to improve Russian-Ukrainian relations."
Federal Foreign Office spokesperson Martin Schäfer reiterated that the German government has noted Ukraine’s decision "very carefully but with some concern". "We believe that free societies have other ways of dealing with propaganda, fake news and misinformation."