U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations Kurt Volker says Russia and its forces do not want the world to see the humanitarian and economic disaster in the east of Ukraine.
"Russia and its forces routinely block [the] OSCE SMM in violation of its commitments. Russia doesn't want [the] world to see that it has created a humanitarian, economic, & ecological disaster in Donbas. It's time for peace for Ukraine," he tweeted on August 7.
This was Volker's comment on a statement by the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, which reported it had faced limited access to the occupied areas in eastern Ukraine.
"OSCE SMM monitors have been once again stopped at the entrance to non-government-controlled Novoazovsk. In the past month, our freedom of movement has been hindered around 40 times in southern parts of non-government-controlled areas of Donetsk region," the OSCE SMM tweeted on August 3.
"Being held at the checkpoint for over three hours, monitors observe other civilians passing though the same checkpoint unrestrictedly. Such impediments to our movement often happen because the sides know that if the SMM observes something, we will publicly report about it," the OSCE SMM said.
