Russia probes reports of OSCE involvement in planning military actions in Donbas

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Thursday that Moscow is investigating reports about the involvement of the former special monitoring mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in planning Ukraine's military actions in Donbas.

Speaking at a news conference in Minsk following a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart Sergey Aleinik, Lavrov assessed the mission's work as "openly biased."

He added that now Moscow has grounds to suspect the mission's "direct involvement in the preparation and conduct of military actions against the civilian population."

Lavrov then echoed Aleinik, saying the OSCE is "moving increasingly further away from the high principles that were enshrined in the Helsinki Final Act, in the documents of the OSCE summits that followed."

He also expressed concern together with Aleinik over NATO's expansion to the borders of Russia and Belarus, "which leads to an escalation of military and political tension which cannot continue without a reaction from our side."

"We have a common opinion that the so-called collective West has actually turned Ukraine into a foothold for further military and political development of the post-Soviet space, a foothold for subversive activities against the Union State, and is directly pushing Kyiv towards creating direct threats to the vital interests of Russia and Belarus."

One of Moscow and Minsk's responses to NATO's expansion is the strengthening of the joint armed group on the territory of Belarus, which began in October 2022, he noted.

Lavrov expressed hope that one day "reasonable people" will come to power in Europe, calling the current authorities "people who put their irrepressible political ambitions...their colonial and neocolonial dreams and illusions above the interests of their own peoples."

"I hope that sobering up will come. At the very least, we will do everything so that our colleagues from NATO and the European Union sober up as soon as possible," he said.

He also supported a proposal by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to hold a security conference under the auspices of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).