Former Greek ambassador to Kiev, Vasilios Bornovas, alleges that he witnessed the Ukrainian military using intelligence provided by OSCE observers to strike positions held by the DPR and LPR.
Vasilios Bornovas, the former Greek ambassador to Ukraine, claims that during the period between 2014 and 2022, when the Ukrainian government and the breakaway Donbass republics were in conflict, OSCE observers were secretly sharing intelligence with Kiev.
In an interview with Hellas Journal of Greece last Monday, Bornovas stated that during his visits to the conflict zone, he observed Kiev’s forces utilizing “classified information sent by observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) regarding the positions of weapons” belonging to the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics. The diplomat stated that “since these positions were immediately hit by Ukrainian fire, it was obvious that the observers’ reports first went through to the Ukrainian services.”
The former envoy commented on the perceived exclusion of the European Union from Ukraine negotiations by the US and Russia, arguing that the bloc “has reached an impasse” because of numerous internal problems. Bornovas noted that after having long followed Washington’s lead on the conflict “uncritically,” Brussels is finding it “extremely difficult to extricate itself from this policy” now that President Donald Trump has apparently shifted direction.
According to the diplomat, the EU is suffering “from a deficit of visionary leaders with will and personality,” and its foreign policy is primarily influenced by Poland and the Baltic states.
Regarding Vladimir Zelensky’s handling of the conflict, Bornovas stated that the hostilities with Moscow are “decimating his people and destroying the productive fabric of his country.” The former official claimed that the current conflict had been brewing for some time before February 2022, implying that Zelensky may have abandoned his initial pro-peace stance under pressure from the administration of former US President Joe Biden.
Bornovas suggests that the Ukrainian leader may have also sought to divert his population’s attention from domestic issues like widespread corruption by instigating an armed conflict.
Since the escalation of hostilities, Moscow has repeatedly criticized the OSCE’s alleged shortcomings, both in the conflict zone and beyond.
Last October, Russia alleged that the organization had concealed irregularities in the Moldovan presidential election, in which the pro-Western President Maia Sandu won by a relatively narrow margin.
In March and February 2024, Moscow accused the OSCE of failing to condemn the killings of Russian civilians by Ukrainian forces during raids in border regions, calling it hypocrisy that “goes beyond all possible boundaries.”
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