VIENNA, Feb 24, 2022 (AFP) – The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said Thursday it was temporarily evacuating foreign staff from Ukraine following Russia’s invasion.

Several hundred OSCE observers from dozens of nations are currently blocked in Ukraine with the world’s biggest security body seemingly taken by surprise at the scale of the dawn attack.

“Due to the ongoing fighting and deteriorated security situation in Ukraine… I have decided to temporarily evacuate all international mission members from Ukraine as soon as possible,” OSCE Secretary General Helga Maria Schmid said in a statement.

She praised “the commitment and bravery of the OSCE staff” since fighting started in Ukraine in 2014, “our impartial eyes and ears on the ground throughout the country”.

Moscow agreed to the deployment in 2014 of the OSCE observers tasked with monitoring a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Moscow separatist rebels fought Ukrainian forces in the regions of Lugansk and Donetsk.

The observers were deployed at multiple locations and were the sole neutral witnesses to events, publishing daily reports.

The OSCE, which began a forum for East-West dialogue in the 1970s, counts 57 member states on three continents — including Russia, Ukraine, the United States and other NATO allies.

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