On the statement by U.S. Ambassador to the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna Daniel Baer responding to the Russian delegation's comments there.
Baer's full statement is HERE.
Here are some excerpts:
Russia agreed that humanitarian assistance should be delivered according to international mechanisms. And Russia has now failed seventeen times to deliver humanitarian aid consistent with international mechanisms.
There are established procedures.
The reason that the ICRC hasn't agreed to participate in these Russian white truck convoys is something for the Russian Federation and the ICRC to discuss. But I would say that the key point here is that there is a way to deliver humanitarian aid that is consistent with international standards, and Russia has repeatedly chosen to flout those international standards and to not do it that way....
And:
I appreciate some of the comments made by our Russian colleague today. I would say, however, that one of the pieces that was missing is the Russian Federation's own actions to comply with the Package of Measures.
I wonder what has happened, and what the Russian Federation's plan is, for the masses of heavy weapons that the Russian Federation had itself around Debaltseve. Whether the Russian tanks have been pulled back, and to where, and what the plan is for the Russian Federation to pull its own heavy weapons and fighters back.
I suspect that our Russian colleague will say that the Russian Federation didn't have any fighters or weapons there, and in that case I wonder what his response is to the multiple journalistic pieces that have come out recently— interviewswith mothers of Russian soldiers, with soldiers themselves. Does he think that these Russians are lying? Are they making this up? Is this a fantasy that they have? I just wonder what the response would be, and what he would say to these people....
And:
The United States has been consistent in advocating for full implementation of the Minsk agreements of last September and now advocates similarly for the implementation of the implementation agreement that was signed last month.
I would note, however, that Russia and its proxies, in violating the Package of Measures from the first seconds of its signature, and in violating the ceasefire from the first minutes of its supposed implementation, have set back the implementation of the Minsk agreements once again. This is because much of what needs to be done in order to implement requires political work that is made more difficult when one side has so flagrantly violated the agreement. That's unfortunate....
"Brand" new, of course:
Within three years, Interfax reports.
Via Reuters:
Viktoria Dubovyk, spokeswoman for the prosecutor-general in Kharkiv, speaking about the car-bomb blast earlier today that injured senior special police officer Andriy Yangolenko and his wife, Inna.
"The man is a commander of the [police] battalion 'Slobozhanshchyna.' Both were injured, they were taken to the hospital. He has injuries of medium severity, his wife is in a difficult condition, she is undergoing surgery right now."