Two Croatian diplomats will join today the OSCE mission in Crimea as civilian observers. The OSCE mission should stay in Ukraine until March 13. The mission currently includes 47 observers from 25 countries (Europe, the US and a representative of the OSCE Conflict Prevention Centre).
The military and civilian observer mission in Ukraine was launched after Ukraine's appeal to all OSCE countries, in accordance with the Vienna Document. The Vienna Document is one of OSCE’s most important trust-building mechanisms that, among other things, includes inspections and observer missions on the territory of a member state that has armed forces.