U.S. at OSCE responds to Russia’s accusations of ‘coup d’état’ and war in Ukraine

Chargé d’Affaires of the U.S. Mission to the OSCE Courtney Austrian said this at an online meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna on June 10, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

“Last week, our Russian colleague told this Permanent Council the conflict in eastern Ukraine was the result of a foreign-orchestrated coup d’état. The Russian delegation has made this claim repeatedly here at the OSCE. But repeating it doesn’t make it true, nor does it change the fact that Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is the sole cause of the conflict," she said.

According to the U.S. representative, the only reason for the ongoing armed conflict is that Russia has continued to fuel it for more than seven years.

“The conflict has killed 13,000 people, injured tens of thousands more, and displaced more than a million people. It seems Russia believes the death and destruction it cold-bloodedly inflicts on the civilian populations of eastern Ukraine is acceptable collateral damage in its efforts to destabilize its sovereign neighbor and impede Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic integration," the diplomat stressed.

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