OSCE condemns "use of heavy weapons"

OSCE condemns "use of heavy weapons"

Serbia, as the OSCE chair, condemned the use of heavy weaponry in civilian areas and called for an immediate stop to hostilities on the ground.

Serbia reiterated its strong support for the work of the Trilateral Contact Group and the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine.

The council expressed condolences to the families of the victims.

Head of the Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine Ertugul Apakan and special representative of the OSCE chairperson Ambassador Heidi Tagliavini informed the members of the council about the situation on the ground.

They expressed deep concern over the escalation of violence in the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk and its spreading to other cities.

They stressed the need to bring all sides back to the negotiating table in order to a sustainable peace and implement all the provisions of the Minsk agreement.

"No confidence"

Russian Permanent Representative at the OSCE Andrei Kelin says the shelling of the outskirts of Mariupol is being used to make a “case” against Russia with an eye to toughening anti-Russian sanctions, TASS reported.

“The Canadians and the Americans never tried to understand what had happened there seeking only to make a new ‘case’ against Russia and use this case to toughen anti-Russian sanctions, or to keep the European partners in leash,” he said after the extraordinary meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council.

Kelin said that hasty conclusions about the Mariupol shelling made by the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission "inspire no confidence":

“There has been no investigation, they just examined the territory, not using any instruments, gauges and other equipment.Taking into account that there is a lot of contradictory reports, such conclusions inspire no confidence.”

“We have said that the mission should be more cautious because today any conclusion has a high political price,” he added.

Kelin also remarked that a normalization of the situation was not possible without a dialogue between the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk and Kiev.

"Civilians targeted knowingly"

Whoever launched the attack on Mariupol "knowingly targeted a civilian population," says UN political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman.

"This would constitute a violation of international humanitarian law," he told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, Reuters reported, and added that he said that "crater analysis by the OSCE indicated the shelling came from rebel-controlled territory."

The government in Kiev said that the Saturday incident claimed the lives of 30 civilians, wounding 95.

U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power accused Moscow of "plotting to grab more of neighboring Ukraine":

"Russia's end goal remains... to seize more territory and move the line of Russian-controlled territory deeper and deeper into Ukraine."

Reuters also quoted her as saying:

"This offensive is made in Moscow. It is waged by Russian-trained and Russian-funded separatists, who use Russian missiles and Russian tanks, who are backed up by Russian troops."

TASS is reporting that Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin told the meeting that the attacks in Volnovakha and Mariupol, both held by Ukraine's government forces, are being used by Kiev to immediately in the wake of the incidents blame the rebels.

Churkin said that there was the impression that the accusations were prepared in advance, while the interest in the incidents "decreases after the propagandist act has been played."

"We call for an objective investigation of Mariupol and Donetsk, and before that of Maidan and Odessa," the diplomat said, according to the Russian website Sputnik.

Last week in Donetsk "at the very least 27 civilians died, 71 people have been injured, 105 residential houses have been destroyed," Churkin said, adding that hospitals and kindergartens have been hit, and mentioning the attack on a public transport stop in Donetsk last week, "that was not followed by sad marches in Kiev, or the calling of a UN Security session, or even a statement by the UN secretary-general."

Churkin accused Kiev of attempting to avoid direct dialogue with Donetsk and Lugansk, and of sabotaging a new Minsk meeting of the Contact Group.