Kyiv asks OSCE to expand monitoring mission:
Foreign Minister Vadym Prystayko says Ukraine has asked the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to expand its monitoring mission in Ukraine.
Prystayko made the announcement on January 20 after a meeting with OSCE Chairman-in-Office Edi Rama.
The OSCE's special monitoring mission has been present in Ukraine since 2014, when fighting broke out in eastern Ukraine between government forces and Russia-backed separatists after Russia's annexation of Crimea.
The war has killed more than 14,000 people and devastated Ukraine's industrial heartland.
The mission's civilian monitors keep track in particular of the situation in the war-torn regions, with a special task of facilitating dialogue between the sides of the conflict. Its mandate expires on March 31.
Prystayko said Kyiv asked the OSCE not only to extend the duration of the mission, but to "expand its possibilities and human resources" and support it financially.
Rama called the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine "the most pressing challenge to security and stability in Europe today."
Leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France, and Germany held talks in December, hoping to revive a 2015 peace deal. The talks didn't produce a breakthrough, but were hailed by both Russia and Ukraine as encouraging. (Reuters, Interfax)
Some photos from yesterday when the remains of the 11 Ukrainian victims of the Flight PS752 plane disaster in Iran arrived in Kyiv.
Remains Of Ukrainians Killed In Air Disaster Arrive In Kyiv
From our news desk:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said he will attend events marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz Nazi death camp taking place in Jerusalem on January 22-23.
Regarding the Ukraine trident symbol story, here is the original document issued by the British police.
The main news from overnight:
-- As the coffins of the 11 Ukrainians who were killed when Iran's military mistakenly shot down a passenger airliner in Tehran arrived in Kyiv on January 19, the lead Iranian investigator into the tragedy said Iran wouldn't send the flight recorders abroad for analysis.
-- Ukraine’s Embassy in Britain has publicly called on police officials to remove the trident, Ukraine’s national symbol and state coat of arms, from a counterterrorism guide that was distributed to police officers, teachers, and medical staff last year.
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