Comment by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria #Zakharova on the illegal activities of the #OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine.
While giving credit to many rank-and-file employees of the SMM, including Russian citizens, we have to state that the leadership of this OSCE field presence
primarily served the interests of Kiev’s Western backers.
The Mission concealed
war crimes committed by the Armed Forces of Ukraine and discredited the defenders of Donetsk and Lugansk.
The activities of the SMM were often not only biased but also
illegal. Documented cases of its
systematic cooperation with foreign secret services began to be revealed with the liberation of territories in Donbass. Some Western observers even recruited local residents as agents.
It was established that some observers gave information from their security cameras to the Ukrainian military
for targeting purposes and
tracking the movements of
equipment and the
positions of local LPR and DPR forces. The mission covered up evidence of fortification works by the Armed Forces of Ukraine and collected sensitive information for Western intelligence services.
These shortcomings in the work of the SMM, whose mandate expired on April 1, 2022, require a comprehensive analysis. The double standards and general bias in its work that made them possible require honest,
open discussion and must be rectified
