Yeliseiev: Election in Donbas Not Possible Unless OSCE Police Mission Deployed

Speaking at a press briefing on Friday, June 17, Kostiantyn Yeliseiev, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration, uttered that Ukraine insists on deploying an OSCE armed mission in Donbas to ensure safe elections there, Interfax-Ukraine reports.

"We keep working both through the Normandy format and in OSCE Vienna to have the mandate of such a mission clearly articulated, as no security and fair election is possible without this mission," Mr. Yeliseiev stressed. He also underlined that Ukraine demands this mission to be deployed before, during, and after local election in Donbas. The official confirmed that this issue was touched upon at the last Normandy-format meeting of the advisers to heads of states. Ukraine was able to present its vision on how the mission should look, and it is working hard to seek partners’ support of this vision.

In addition, the participants discussed the modalities of election in Donbas, but it is the Parliament of Ukraine that should adopt the respective law.

"An election never takes place on occupied territory. All law-making-related matters fall within the competence of the Verkhovna Rada. We as advisers were discussing the modalities of elections pursuant to the Minsk agreement," Mr. Yeliseiev explained.

In the meantime, in an interview to Hromadske.ua [ed.: the text of this hyperlink is in the Ukrainian language] Yevhen Marchuk, Ukraine’s representative at the security subgroup of Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine, informed that the OSCE police mission would cost up to $1 billion, while he was not sure how promptly this money could be raised.

Source: Ukrayinska Pravda