OSCE Will Monitor Ceasefire in Ukraine Using Drones
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will deploy drones soon as part of efforts to beef up monitoring of the ceasefire in Ukraine, its chairman said on Wednesday.
OSCE chairman and Swiss President Didier Burkhalter called the ceasefire a "real opportunity" and said it should be given time to produce a political dialogue before more sanctions are imposed on Russia over its involvement in the crisis, Censor.NET reports citing Reuters.
Calling the situation fragile, Burkhalter told an OSCE forum in Prague the security watchdog had 70 specialists in Donetsk and Luhansk regions to monitor the ceasefire between Ukrainian forces and the pro-Russian separatists and was expanding that mission fast.
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"Discussions are underway on possibilities of integrating, as soon as possible, national drones as an in-kind contribution by participating states in the... monitoring scheme," he said.
"OSCE-owned drones will also be deployed soon," he added.
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OSCE spokesman Shiv Sharma said the group would initially deploy two drones at the end of September to the beginning of October, and that more would follow later. Austrian group Schiebel is manufacturing the drones, he said.
The drones are part of plans to expand the OSCE's mission in Ukraine, where five months of fighting have led to Russia's biggest clash with the West since the end of the Cold War.
