Ukraine calls on OSCE to launch remote monitoring of situation in occupied Crimea

Ukraine calls on the OSCE SMM to launch remote monitoring of the situation in Crimea and welcomes the steps taken by the Mission to interview people on the administrative border with the temporarily occupied Crimea.

Yevhenii Tsymbaliuk, Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the International Organizations in Vienna, said this during the OSCE Permanent Council meeting on October 7, an Ukrinform correspondent reported.

"We insist on the need to launch remote monitoring of the situation in Crimea, especially in view of the recent detentions of Crimean Tatars on September 3, 4, and 5, which is a continuation of the Russian occupation forces' illegal practice of using Russian law as a pretext for detaining dissidents on trumped-up charges," Tsymbaliuk said in response to the reports by Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine Mikko Kinnunen and Chief Monitor of the OSCE SMM to Ukraine Yaşar Halit Çevik.

In this regard, Tsymbaliuk welcomed the initiative of the OSCE SMM to interview people on the administrative border with Crimea. "We call on the Mission to continue pursuing this practice," he added.

At the same time, he noted that the Russian armed formations were restricting the SMM's access to the occupied territories along the Sea of ​​Azov coast. "This happens at a time when commercial vessels continue to face artificial delays, Russia gradually militarizes the waters of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, and Crimea becomes a military outpost of Russia," the Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the International Organizations in Vienna said.

In addition, the Ukrainian diplomat condemned yet another forced conscription campaign in the occupied territories of Crimea and eastern Ukraine announced on October 1. As noted, since 2014 and up to this day, more than 30,000 Ukrainian citizens have been illegally drafted into the Russian Armed Forces.

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