The LPR Ministry of State Security has detained an employee of the Lugansk team of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) on suspicion of treason, the press service of the Ministry said.
"The Ministry of State Security of the LPR on suspicion of committing a crime under Article 335 of the Criminal Code of the LPR ("high treason") detained an employee of the Lugansk team of the Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Investigation showed that the employee handed over information to a foreign organization to be used to undermine the security of the Lugansk People's Republic."
On March 1, 2022, the OSCE SMM delegation checked out of the Slavyanskaya Hotel in Lugansk and departed in an unknown direction.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in Donbass to protect residents of the region from Ukrainian aggression and called on Ukrainian troops to leave the combat zone. Earlier, the Heads of the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics, Leonid Pasechnik and Denis Pushilin, requested Russian President Vladimir Putin to provide military assistance.
The Ukrainian government launched the so-called anti-terrorist operation against Donbass in April 2014. The members of the Contact Group have announced ceasefire more than 20 times since the autumn of 2014. Kiev forces regularly violated the truce opening fire with large caliber artillery, mortars and tank guns which were to have been withdrawn from the contact line under the accords. *t
