BELGRADE – The chairperson-in-office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Serbia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Ivica Dačič on January 14 strongly condemned yesterday’s deadly incident in which several people were killed and wounded on a bus at a government-controlled checkpoint near Volnovakha, eastern Ukraine.
“I condemn in the strongest terms this attack on innocent passengers. I am appalled by this incident and its tragic outcome, and express my deepest sympathy to the families of the victims,” he said. “This incident comes as the situation in the east of the country has significantly deteriorated and I call on all sides to immediately halt the use of force, exercise restraint, return to the negotiating table and implementing both the letter and the spirit of the Minsk documents.”
“I am following the situation closely through reports from the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, and I urge all sides to allow for the safe and unhindered access of OSCE monitors to all areas so that they can do their job,” Mr. Dačič added.
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A New York Times report on January 14 quoted Ambassador Ertugrul Apakan of the OSCE’s special monitoring mission to Ukraine as saying that the situation had “significantly deteriorated” in the last 24 hours.
“For a while, it was just light weapons,” Michael Bociurkiw, the spokesman for the monitoring mission, told The Times by telephone from Kyiv. “But now we are back to the heavy artillery.”