Austria has no plans to withdraw its observers from the OSCE mission in Ukraine

OSCE flagVIENNA, Feb 14 Austria has no plans to recall its observers from the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM), the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs told RIA Novosti on Monday. The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM) on Sunday confirmed that some countries were withdrawing their observers from Ukraine and assured that they would continue monitoring activity in the country.The Netherlands is withdrawing OSCE monitors from eastern Ukraine, media reported»Just as the staff of the Austrian embassy in Kiev will hold its ground, Austria will continue to support the SMM with personnel. Only through the active participation of the SMM will it be possible to maintain full functionality. The OSCE can count on the support of Austria in this» , the Foreign Ministry said. Four of the 12 Austrian SMM monitors are located in the areas of Donetsk and Luhansk. «The decision on their future work and its place will be taken by the OSCE,» the ministry stressed. As Vladislav Berdichevsky, deputy of the People's Council of the self-proclaimed DPR, Vladislav Berdichevsky, the American, British and Danish mission members, according to preliminary information, left the territory of the republic. CNN, citing informed sources, reported that the US administration, amid the crisis over Ukraine, intends to withdraw its observers from the OSCE mission.The OSCE Secretary General announced the continuation of the work of the Mission in Ukraine As the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova previously noted in a comment on the website of the ministry, the decision of a number of countries to redeploy the staff of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine is of serious concern, Moscow calls on the leadership of the organization to stop attempts to manipulate the mission. The West accuses the Russian Federation in alleged plans to escalate the situation around Ukraine. Moscow categorically denies this and constantly states that no one is threatened with anything, and all such statements are used as an excuse to deploy more NATO military equipment near Russian borders. As Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier, Russia does not create any pretexts for a conflict situation around Ukraine. According to him, Russia does not rule out that the hysteria around Ukraine, hyped by the West, is aimed at covering Kiev's line of sabotaging the Minsk agreements on Donbass. According to the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov, the US and NATO information hysteria over Ukraine is generously framed by lies and fakes.