In his visit to Kiev, OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier, in fact contradicts the Special Monitoring Mission and confirms the Moscow army operates in Donbass.
If statements weighed with diplomacy have to be always read between the lines, OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier said what he could not say. And even in the clearest way. “When people ask me whether there are Russian troops in the Donbas region, I say that according to our observers, there are no troops, but we see the presence of military equipment from outside. Also we see a large presence of equipment and fuel, it also came from somewhere. There is an influx of military equipment that never diminishes in number in spite of the conflict, in spite of the losses. In addition, there are foreign officers. There are also people who do not just shoot, they also run sophisticated military technology and equipment”.
The declaration of Zannier, prompted by a reporter’s question during his visit last week in Kiev, follows criticism on the work of the Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) in Ukraine, accused of closing both eyes to the presence of Russian troops in Ukraine. After all, Zannier explained even why: “Our air drones have been repetedly shot down by sophisticated anti-aircraft equipment”.
What the OSCE doesn’t see
In essence, the OSCE cannot officially say that there are Russian soldiers in Ukraine because, as naively Zannier said, all these foreigners fighting in Donbass “acknowledge this, but deny any connections, any official connections with Russian structures at least when we talked to them”.
The Foreign Minister of Ukraine, Pavlo Klimkin, immediately gave a less diplomatic interpretation of his words. “In fact, everyone understands that the Russian regular troops are there. We know from our intelligence reports. Our partners and allies also know it. But in fact, when the SMM OSCE is in Donbas, there are no Russian troops sporting Russian uniform and holding their Russian weapons – so the SMM formally does not see the Russian troops there, and this is what Zannier meant”, Klimkin said.
But the OSCE Secretary General said even much more. Because it is evident that the so-called people’s republics of Donetsk and Luhansk are not in the financial conditions to afford “a large presence of equipment and fuel”, after more than two years of conflict against a regular army (albeit rundown as the Ukrainian), nor “sophisticated military technology and equipment” or ” sophisticated anti-aircraft equipment.” They have to “come from somewhere”. Well, where from?
The signs of the Russian army
The task of OSCE observers, it must be said, is a hard work. Criticism comes both from Kiev and the people of Donbass, that accuses them of not reporting the use of artillery against civilians. The SMM is increasingly being denied access to entire areas under the control of separatists – as in the case of Pionerske near Luhansk, where they are not allowed for weeks, while their convoys are widely anticipated with the use of Russian UAVs, giving plenty of time to move weapons and vehicles. The past month, in the time of three days, two convoys were captured and threatened with weapons by both separatist militia in the village of Lukove, south of Donetsk, and Ukrainian soldiers at a checkpoint in Lobacheve, north of Luhansk.
But all this is not enough to justify such a disguised ingenuity. Neither it is entirely believable that, despite the obstacles and disorientation actions, none of the observers was ever found to ascertain with certainty the Russian presence. Even in a single case.
Yet it would have been enough to go on the battlefield of Ilovaisk, even weeks after the bloody battle of summer 2014 to find, as it happened to me, an exorbitant amount of evidence of the passage of the Russian army, from the remnants of the weapons, medicines, to K rations of Armya Rossiy. Or to talk, as I did, with those who have seen with their own eyes the Russian soldiers on the T90s. Or, again, as I did, with those who have crossed the border with Russia along with the recruiters.
It’s a good job that Zannier said it clearly.
@daniloeliatweet
In his visit to Kiev, OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier, in fact contradicts the Special Monitoring Mission and confirms the Moscow army operates in Donbass.
