OSCE Personnel Working In Ukraine Said To Be Ineffective

During his presentation on the ‘Beyond Minsk perspectives of the prospective Russian Invasion’ he expressed an opinion that OSCE has never been used to monitor any military activities. He considers the OSCE inspectors to play a role rather of marital advisers than that of divorce lawyers. Karber claimed that the task undertaken by the OSCE is to carry out inspections and create reports, which is hampered by the Russian personnel working for the OSCE’s Special Monitoring Mission.

Karber referred to his own experience, gathered during his visit to Mariupol, stating that the number of the Russian observers far exceeded the number of the observers coming from the other countries. The Russians were said to be walking around the Ukrainians and to record the coordinates of the Ukrainian forces with the use of their mobile phones. Kaber thus stated that OSCE cannot be considered to be an independent body.

The US expert lasso presented a map of inspections, agreed on with the OSCE. The map shows it clearly that the inspectors have no access to the Russian-Ukrainian border, where the delivery of the goods and equipment to Donbass takes place. Additionally, this is the area where the Russian forces are said to cross the border. Karber’s data suggests that the OSCE inspectors have only 25% of the time that was to be initially granted to them at their disposal, 50% in other regions. Even though – any inspection or operation needs to be authorized by the Russians either way.