Ukrainian officials have accused international monitors working in the conflict zone in the country’s east of succumbing to pro-Russian bias, after the mission was depleted when the US, British and Canadian governments withdrew their citizens.
The mission, run by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), is made up of hundreds of unarmed monitors, often former diplomats from OSCE member states. Their armoured vehicles crisscross the territory on both sides of the lines to report ceasefire violations.
As Moscow looks ready to exploit the tense situation in the conflict zone to provide a pretext for the further invasion of Ukraine, the work of the monitors is more important than ever. However, just when they are most needed, their ability to work has been hampered by the decision by several countries to evacuate, due to the risk of a Russian invasion.
“We have asked for France and Germany to increase the number of monitors they have in place, and we want the OSCE to return to working according to its mandate,” said the Ukrainian deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereschuk, speaking on Saturday in Stanytsia Luhanska, a town in Ukrainian-controlled territory right on the frontline.
Russia insists Ukraine is planning an offensive in the east. Ukraine and western countries believe Russian claims of escalation are merely a smokescreen to give it a pretext to launch a military assault.
“It’s very important for everyone to understand that it’s the Russian Federation that’s behind this. Ukraine has no offensive plans,” said Vereschuk, after a visit to a kindergarten in Stanytsia Luhanska that was shelled on Thursday.
Impact marks suggest the kindergarten was hit from the south, where the Russia-backed separatists have positions, but Russian media have suggested the incident could have been a setup.
Although journalists were given access to the scene on Thursday and again on Saturday, in their daily report the OSCE said its staff were not permitted to approach closer than 50 metres to the school and were thus “unable to determine the weapons used or the direction of fire”.
“This did not happen,” said Vereschuk. “Unfortunately, we are able to state that the OSCE special monitoring mission was not completely objective about the situation with the kindergarten.”
Serhiy Haidai, the Kyiv-appointed governor of Luhansk region, went further, suggesting the departure of British, American and Canadian monitors had led to a pro-Russian bias.
“Those who are left are representatives of Russia and the former Soviet countries, and they can look at things very one-sidedly. They don’t go where they know they will find proof of shelling of civilian buildings, but they are very happy to look at our military installations, and this creates a big question for us,” he told the Guardian in Stanytsia Luhanska.
The mission’s 680 monitors come from more than 40 countries, and the withdrawn American, British, Canadian and Dutch delegations represent 57, 40, 28 and seven people respectively, according to a January OSCE report.
The OSCE mission has long come under suspicion on both sides of the lines, though impediments to work on the separatist side have usually been more frequent and greater. “The Ukrainians were always suspicious of the Russian and Belarusian monitors, while the separatists were suspicious of Americans and Poles,” said Nikolaus von Twickel, a Berlin-based analyst who previously worked for the mission.
Sources inside the OSCE mission dismissed Ukrainian claims of bias. “The idea that a change in personnel would influence the report … this just isn’t how it works. There are so many layers of checks,” said one source inside the mission, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
However, there is great unease at the decision by some countries to withdraw monitors. In a video call with about 450 staff last Monday, the head of the monitoring mission, Yaşar Halit Çevik, said evacuated staff with office jobs would not be able to work remotely, according to one source who was on the call.
Çevik also said that if monitors from countries that had not ordered evacuations were worried about the situation, they could take annual leave. Many staff have done so, further depleting the mission.
One member of the mission described the OSCE plans for evacuation if there is a Russian escalation as “shaky at best, and still in progress”, which was a factor that led many to opt to take leave.
However, among the monitors stationed in the most dangerous parts of eastern Ukraine there is a feeling that the US, British and Canadian withdrawal is an overreaction. “There is a strong opinion among colleagues that it’s a bad idea,” said one monitor, from a country that has not evacuated its citizens.
“There are colleagues who served in Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq. People knew they were signing up to be sent into a war zone. And now, when the mission is more important than ever before, they are being pulled out.”