Ukraine accuses Russia of trying to disrupt visit of EU representatives to the Donbas
Representative of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the EU Mykola Tochytskyi stated at a meeting with journalists that Russia’s Representative to the OSCE tried to disrupt the visit of EU diplomats to the Donbas in June by informing them that Ukraine had plans to shoot down the helicopter carrying them, Evropeyska Pravda reports.
According to Tochytskyi, the warning had been sent in early summer ahead of the EU’s political and security committee representatives’ visit to Ukraine on June 13 to 15.
“Russia’s Permanent Representative to the OSCE, Alexander Lukashevich, told the representatives of the EU that Ukraine was preparing a terrorist attack and presumably planning to shoot down a helicopter in order to put the blame on the LPR (Luhansk People's Republic) and DPR (Donetsk People's Republic). At the same time, the information was also provided to the media,” said the Ukrainian ambassador.
According to Tochytskyi, this episode is a good example of a hybrid war against Ukraine. Russia’s aim was to disrupt the trip of European diplomats to the Donbas. Kyiv learned of the alleged planned attack from European diplomats who questioned the need for the trip. Eventually, he managed to persuade them that the Russian “warning” was false.
“We spent a whole day trying to figure out how to convince our colleagues that this was part of a hybrid war, this was false information and so there was no danger.” The trip pushed through in the end. Everyone agreed to participate, but the route, flight maps, everything about the visit program was changed, the ambassador explained.
When the Ukrainian government learned of the incident in June, it revealed nothing about the details of the visit and reported only about a meeting of the EU's political and security committee representatives with Poroshenko.