RIA Novosti: OSCE Military Observers at Ukraine-Russia Border – Kiev’s Security Service

KIEV, April 24 (RIA Novosti) – A group of OSCE military observers is present at a Ukrainian checkpoint at the border with Russia that is surrounded by federalization supporters, the press center of the Ukrainian Security Service said Thursday.

“An inspection team of OSCE military observers has been working on the site of the Luhansk border detachment over the past few days. The purpose of their mission is to fix the facts of military activity near the border and provocative actions aimed at destabilizin g the situation in Ukraine,” the service said in a statement.

The observers have monitored the situation at the border and visited several border units. They will continue their work Thursday.

Another multinational group of observers supervised by Germany arrived in southeastern Ukraine on Monday, taking the place of a group from the Netherlands that had been working there since April 12, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry reported Wednesday.

Ukraine “intends to further use the opportunities provided by the OSCE Vienna Document on Confidence and Security-Building Measures, to ensure a permanent presence of military observers on its territory until the situation is stabilized,” the Foreign Ministry said.

In February, the Ukrainian parliament backed by far-right movements ousted President Viktor Yanukovych and scheduled an early presidential election for May 25. Moscow has described the uprising in Kiev as an illegitimate fascist coup and a milit ary seizure of power, which resulted in it taking steps to protect ethnic Russians in Ukraine, including the reunification with Crimea.