OSCE ready to monitor the border. From our news desk:
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) says its monitors are ready to observe the Ukrainian-Russian border if they get an appropriate mandate and safety guarantees.
Speaking in Kyiv on February 13, OSCE Secretary-General Lamberto Zannier noted that the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine now has a small division that has a right only to monitor a few specific parts of the border.
He also said the peace deal reached in Minsk on February 12 doesn’t currently envisage the monitoring of the border.
Meanwhile, Russian envoy to the OSCE Andrei Kelin told Rossia 24 television that the number of monitors in the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine will increase from 230 to 350 by February 14.
According to the agreement reached by the Ukrainian, Russian, German, and French leaders in Minsk, a cease-fire to be monitored by the OSCE is to begin after midnight on February 15.
Camera catches Poroshenko in Minsk saying Putin played "dirty," Lukashenka agreeing.
Poroshenko: "He plays dishonestly, dirty."
Lukashenka: "I know. They all saw it."
Savchenko's fate is still very unclear:
Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman says no promises were made during peace talks in Minsk about the fate of detained Ukrainian Air Force pilot Nadia Savchenko.
Dmitry Peskov said on February 13 that Savchenko's case would be decided by Russian courts.
He said Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko inquired during the February 12 talks about Russia releasing Savchenko, who has been held by Russia for more than six months on charges of involvement in the killing of two Russian journalists in Ukraine.
She is in the ninth week of a hunger strike.
Poroshenko said after the talks he was told Savchenko would be released "in the near future."
Peskov said French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel had also urged Savchenko's release during the Minsk talks.
An "all-for-all" exchange of captives between Ukraine and the pro-Russian separatists agreed to in Minsk had raised Ukrainian hopes that Savchenko would be released.
This piece in Slate is not very optimistic about the peace deal:
"Most troubling about the new agreement is that Ukraine doesn’t regain “full control” over hundreds of miles of border with Russia until after local elections in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and the passing of a new Ukrainian constitution with “the key element of decentralization”—both of which must happen before the end of 2015.
"In other words, Putin determines who and what crosses the border into Ukraine until he is satisfied the Kiev government has genuflected deeply enough. And if Poroshenko doesn’t survive the domestic political fight to implement the Minsk provisions—plenty of Ukrainians already consider him a traitor—then more chaos in Kiev can only open up new opportunities for the Kremlin."