Moscow seeks to pull the plug on  OSCE Special Monitoring Mission at checkpoints ‘Gukovo’ and ‘Donetsk’ starting October 1, informed Russian officials  at OSCE Council meeting Thursday.

The Ukrainian side at TCG  called the move a ‘deliberate sabotage’ of Minsk agreements.

‘The Ukrainian delegation strongly condemns such actions of the Russian Federation and considers them in the context of other actions of Moscow aimed at blocking progress in the framework of the TCG consultations. Ukraine demands that the Russian side immediately stop destructive actions against the OSCE Monitoring Mission, fulfill all its commitments under the Minsk agreements in order to de-escalate the security situation and further resolve the armed conflict by political and diplomatic means’, the statement says.

The move is seen as evidence of Russia’s plans to step up supplies of  weapons, military equipment and send more mercenaries to the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine in Donetsk and Luhansk regions.