MOSCOW, Mar 7 : Russia and Germany on Friday urged the OSCE to more than double the number of its observers in Ukraine to 1,000, to monitor a sputtering ceasefire as the EU downplayed the threat of new sanctions against Moscow.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his German counterpart Franck-Walter Steinmeier "called on the OSCE to make a quick decision on extending the mandate of its special monitoring mission and ramping up its size to 1,000 observers" from the current 452, the foreign ministry in Moscow said.
The ministers said more monitors from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe were required to "efficiently monitor" the latest Ukraine ceasefire between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government troops in areas of Ukraine bordering Russia.    ?AFP