Russia is the main obstacle to a peaceful settlement of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, Courtney E. Austrian, theUS chargé d'affaires to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), said on Thursday at the OSCE Permanent Council meeting in Vienna.
“Russia’s military activity in and around Ukraine, along with the Kremlin’s increasingly hostile rhetoric over the preceding months, is unwarranted and dangerously provocative. The primary obstacle to peace is Russia. This is a conflict Russia started, and now bears full responsibility for ending,” Ms. Austrian said.
She recalled that the eight-year-long Russian aggression against Ukraine has already led to over 13,000 fatalities, tens of thousands of injuries, the displacement of 1.6 million people, and massive damage to critical civil infrastructure.
“We call on Russia to cease its aggression, observe the ceasefire, implement its Minsk commitments, and withdraw its forces from Ukraine’s sovereign territory,” she said.
“We also call on Russia to allow the SMM [Special Monitoring Mission] to fulfill its mandate and monitor throughout Ukraine, which includes the Russia-controlled territory in the Donbas and Russia-occupied Crimea,” she continued.
“We urge Russia to engage constructively within the Trilateral Contact Group and to reopen all EECPs along the Line of Contact to allow free movement of civilians,” she added.