A US monitor with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) died after a mission patrol vehicle hit a landmine in the Russian-backed separatist east Ukraine, eliciting sharp words toward Moscow from US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Sunday.
It marked the first loss for the security body’s Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) since the war in Ukraine broke out more than three years ago.
The OSCE’s announcement about the US monitor’s death saw Kiev and the insurgents quickly trade blame over who was at fault for one of the most diplomatically sensitive episodes in a conflict that has claimed more than 10,000 lives.
Photo: Reuters
SSM deputy chief monitor Alexander Hug said the patrol consisted of six members who were traveling in two armored vehicles near the village of Pryshyb in a rebel-run region of the separatist fiefdom of Lugansk.
“The explosion resulted in the death of an OSCE patrol member, a citizen of the United States,” Hug told reporters in Kiev.
He said two others — a German and a Czech — were wounded and “undergoing further evaluation” in a Lugasnk hospital.
The OSCE said it would not release the names of the casualties until their families had been notified.
Tillerson said in a telephone conversation on Sunday with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko that Moscow’s actions in eastern Ukraine remain an obstacle to improved US-Russian ties, the US Department of State said.
“Secretary Tillerson phoned Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko today to discuss his recent trip to Moscow and his message to the Russian leadership that, although the United States is interested in improving relations with Russia, Russia’s actions in eastern Ukraine remain an obstacle,” acting US Department of State spokesman Mark Toner said.
Tillerson accepted Poroshenko’s “condolences” for the death of the American, the statement said.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg tweeted his reaction to the incident.
“A thorough investigation is needed of the tragic @OSCE_SMM incident in E #Ukraine. Safety & freedom of movement must be maintained,” he tweeted.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the blast underscored the need for the warring sides to “finally respect” a long-ignored ceasefire agreement negotiated by Moscow and Kiev with the help of Paris and Berlin in February 2015.
“The separatists supported by Russia who illegally occupy part of Ukrainian territory by violence have a special responsibility here,” Merkel said in a statement.
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini said the incident was a “reminder of the urgent need for progress on a peaceful resolution of the conflict”
Both Kiev and the West accuse Moscow of plotting and backing the fighting in repr.isal for the February 2014 ouster of Ukraine’s Kremlin-backed leadership.
Russia denies this and in turn accuses the US Department of State of fomenting the 2013 to 2014 street protests that ended up allying ex-Soviet Ukraine with the West.
The OSCE team’s 600 members in eastern Ukraine are the only independent monitoring mission in the devastated industrial war zone.
They provide daily reports on the fighting and have drawn the insurgents’ ire for accusing them of being responsible for most violations of the truce deal.
Lugansk rebel police force spokesman Alexander Mazeikin said that the OSCE vehicle “hit an anti-tank mine.”
The separatists also accused the monitors of veering off the main road and traveling along an unsafe route not agreed with Russian and Ukrainian representatives.
“We know that this patrol team deviated from the main route and was moving along secondary roads, which is prohibited,” the Lugansk rebels said on their news site.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreing Affairs branded the incident an attempt by “Moscow and its puppets to scare off OSCE monitors and to nullify efforts by Ukraine and the SMM to stabilize the situation along the front.”
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded that it was “deeply outraged” by what it called a bid by undisclosed forces to undermine efforts to bring peace to its western neighbor.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was