Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said the participants in the Normandy Four (Germany, France, Ukraine and Russia) meeting in Berlin on 11 May agreed that an "international component" should be present at local elections in Donbas.
"We have agreed that the OSCE SMM (Special Monitoring Mission) can be such a component. We also discussed what the mandate of this mission can be, what the rules for this mission can be, and also the weapons component. I am happy that there is general understanding that this issue needs further discussion," he told reporters after the Normandy Four meeting.
"We have proposed a three-stage plan, which provides for the establishment of a number of bases for SMM, from which it will be possible to control the border, ensuring equipment placement to control risk points, in particular road and rail tracks; and of course, the placement of the OSCE representatives at the checkpoints on our side, and some other details," he said.
"We, along with the OSCE believe that it should work out quite effectively in terms of stopping the constant traffic of regular troops, mercenaries, military equipment, ammunition etc., which comes from the Russian side," the minister said.
In his opinion, without such monitoring it makes no sense to even start talking about holding local elections in Donbas.