During the meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) on the settlement of the Donbas on Tuesday, the Ukrainian side asked head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Special Monitoring Mission (OSCE SMM) Ertugrul Apakan to evaluate the manipulative statements of the now former first deputy SMM head Alexander Hug about evidence of Russia’s invasion in Ukraine and present the official position of the Mission.
“The second question, which the Ukrainian side of the TCG sharply raised (presidential adviser Demchenko presented that day) is the inadmissibility and manipulative nature of recent statements by the former deputy head of the OSCE SMM Hug,” First Deputy Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament and Ukraine’s envoy to the TCG humanitarian subgroup Iryna Gerashchenko said on Facebook on November 6 evening.
According to her, the Ukrainian side asked Apakan to assess Hug’s manipulative statements and clarify whether this is a personal position of a Swiss official and to elaborate the official position of the OSCE SMM.
“Apakan said Hug’s statements expressed in the interview were incorrectly presented and is his personal opinion,” Gerashchenko said.
As earlier reported, Hug said his remarks in an October 2018 interview with the U.S. publication Foreign Policy about the absence of Russian military intervention in Donbas did not reflect his point of view.
Hug said that the published text was misleading and did not reflect his opinion, and that the interview had been amended to reflect this.
In the original interview, Hug was quoted as saying that SMM staff saw people with Russian insignia in Donbas but that such uniforms can be purchased anywhere. Asked what the OSCE position was on the question of Russian intervention in eastern Ukraine, he said that the SMM saw no direct evidence of it.
