A senior member of the monitoring mission in Ukraine from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) says 70 percent of the restrictions imposed on the free movement of monitors since May has been in areas outside of the control of Ukraine’s government.
Alexander Hug, deputy chief monitor of the OSCE's Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, made the remark in an October 18 interview with RFE/RL.
Hug said the restrictions imposed in parts of eastern Ukraine under the control of Russia-backed separatists usually occur in one of three ways.
"We are either stopped and blocked from proceeding further, we can only continue further under certain conditions, or we are delayed over hours at a certain checkpoint before we then can go further," Hug said.
Hug also said drone planes used by monitors are shot at or have their transmissions jammed, or have their cameras sabotaged.
About 700 OSCE monitors have been active in Ukraine since March 2014.
They have a mandate to observe the security situation across all of Ukraine.
