Ukraine Security

From USA Today:
"Ukraine crisis: Europe's security body to send monitors"

International monitors will be sent to Ukraine, after Russian diplomats dropped their objections.

European security organisation, the OSCE, will send advance teams within 24 hours to areas including the violence-hit south-eastern areas. But the 100-strong monitoring team is not expected to go to Crimea, which was taken over by Russia last month. Russian leader Vladimir Putin signed a law formalising Crimea's annexation on Friday, despite EU and US sanctions. The 57-member Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe reached a deal on Friday evening.  The Vienna-based group said that initially 100 civilian observers would deploy for six months in nine regions of Ukraine.  Up to 400 extra personnel could be deployed if necessary. The areas the monitors are due to visit include Odessa, Donetsk, Dnepropetrovsk, and Luhansk, which have been recently rocked by clashes between pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian activists. "The decision itself calls for monitors to be deployed within 24 hours," said Daniel Baer, the US ambassador to the OSCE.

The US said in a statement that "it is clear that with the adoption of this decision this mission has a mandate to work in Crimea and in all other parts of Ukraine". But Russian envoy Andrey Kelin responded by saying that Crimea had now become part of Russia and therefore the mission had "no mandate" to go there. Western diplomats had blamed Russia for several failed attempts to agree such a mission in recent days. Earlier this month OSCE monitors had to abandon their visit to Crimea after warning shots were fired at the border. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Friday's deal was "not the end of the crisis". "It is a step that helps support our efforts toward de-escalation," he said.   In Crimea itself, forces allied to Russia have been seizing Ukrainian ships and taking over military bases. The new authorities in Crimea have invited those serving in the Ukrainian forces on the peninsula to switch sides and join Russian forces.

^ Talk about too little too late. They waited until Russia controlled all of the Crimea to do anything and then asked Russia's permission to enter the rest of the Ukraine. So far they seem to be as useless as the UN Peacekeepers were during the Bosnian War (ie won't do anything to stop any fighting.) ^

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26693422