Original article (in Bosnian) was published on 07/03/2022
Some websites published a claim that “Ukrainian nationalists” allegedly captured the vehicles of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s mission in Ukraine. The OSCE has denied the allegations.
Every day, the website Sputnik publishes articles containing daily updated information related to the war in Ukraine. In one such article, published on March 1, 2022, a paragraph mentioned the alleged capture of the vehicle of the Special Monitoring Mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). An update of the article made at 8:42 a.m. featured information that “Ukrainian nationalists captured about twenty OSCE vehicles”:
Ukrainian nationalists capture about 20 OSCE vehicles
Ukrainian nationalists captured about twenty vehicles of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Kramatorsk. The fate of the mission members is unknown, the People’s Militia of the DNR announced.
This part of the article also contains two videos, which were published on March 1, 2022, on Sputnik’s account on the social network Telegram (1, 2). However, these announcements do not claim that “about twenty OSCE vehicles were captured”. Instead, the footage shows “evacuation of OSCE personnel from Kyiv”, as well as footage of “4 out of 30 OSCE vehicles” that remained “in Lugansk” .
The claim about the alleged capture of the vehicle of the OSCE mission by “Ukrainian nationalists” was published by a dozen other media from the region. Some media published this statement in live updated daily articles (1, 2, 3), while others published it in separate articles (1, 2, 3, 4, 5). Pink (1, 2) and 24 sevens (1, 2) published this statement in articles that are constantly updated and in separate articles.
In an article from March 1, 2022, Srbin (.info) presented the claim that “Ukrainian nationalists captured about twenty OSCE vehicles” as capturing observers of this organization.
(LIVE) Ukrainian nationalists capture OSCE observers
In addition to the claim that the observers were allegedly captured, the article also contains a claim about the “capture” of about twenty OSCE vehicles, which was published in other media.
What are the facts?
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is the world’s largest regional security organization. According to the official website of this organization, the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM) began on March 21, 2014, “following a request from the Ukrainian government to the OSCE and a consensus decision of all 57 OSCE participating states. The SMM is an unarmed, civilian mission, present on the ground 24/7 in all regions of Ukraine. Its main tasks are to observe and report impartially and objectively on the situation in Ukraine and to facilitate dialogue between all parties to the crisis”. The teams of this mission are deployed in several Ukrainian areas.
Where does the claim about “capturing vehicles” come from?
The allegations about the allegedly captured vehicles came from the military formation of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, the People’s Militia of the DNR. On March 1, 2022, on their official account on the Telegram network, it was announced that “according to operational information, Ukrainian nationalist formations, taking advantage of the situation in Kramatorsk, captured about twenty OSCE SMM vehicles”.
The announcement also states that “the fate of the mission members is unknown”, and that these vehicles will “undoubtedly be used to carry out provocations against OSCE employees”.
The Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk is located in the east of the country, in the border area between the territory controlled by Ukraine and the territory of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic.
Are OSCE vehicles or observers captured in Ukraine?
OSCE denied allegations about “their vehicles being captured” in Kramatorsk on its official Twitter account. The announcement was made on March 1, 2022.
❗ All OSCE vehicles in Kramatorsk are accounted for. Reports that @OSCE_SMM vehicles were stolen from our compound are false.
As the Ukrainian fact-checking portal StopFake states in an article from March 2, 2022, a representative of the OSCE Mission to Kramatorsk denied allegations of their vehicles “being captured”.
The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine also publishes daily reports on the security situation in this country. The report for March 1, 2022, does not state that their vehicles and/or observers were “captured” in Kramatorsk.
Therefore, the Organization for Security and Safety in Europe denied the allegations about the “capture of about twenty vehicles” of this organization in Kramatorsk.
According to the facts, we assess the claim that “Ukrainian nationalists captured about twenty OSCE vehicles”, initially published on the website Sputnik, as fake news. All other publications of this claim receive the rating of distribution of fake news.
The claim that “Ukrainian nationalists captured OSCE observers” was also assessed as fake news.