Lord Hylton
Main Page: Lord Hylton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)Department Debates - View all Lord Hylton's debates with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
(10 years, 5 months ago)
Lords ChamberI cannot give my noble friend the precise number, but of course I will write to him. However, I can assure him that a DfID team is already on the ground in Ukraine looking specifically at the technical support package I have already mentioned.
My Lords, does the Minister agree that the OSCE should be involved with Ukraine at every level, from the humblest military or election observer up to the chairman in office? Will the OSCE look with particular care at whether certain sections and groups within the population have genuine grievances and how they might be remedied?
There is already an OSCE presence in Ukraine, but the noble Lord will be pleased to know that a further 100 monitors will deploy with the first advance parties which left for the country at the weekend. A chief monitor will be appointed immediately, and the secretary-general of the OSCE has made it clear that he aims to increase the number of monitors up to 500, as has been agreed, at the earliest possible opportunity. These observers will be an essential element of the developments in Ukraine.