Militants from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) have threatened to shoot down German unmanned aerial vehicles if they are involved in the OSCE monitoring mission in eastern Ukraine.
One of the DPR leaders, Boris Litvinov, said this in an interview with Germany's Bild newspaper.
"We will not allow the use of drones on the Ukrainian-Russian border, they will just be shot down," Litvinov said.
He said that DPR militants would regard the use of foreign drones as espionage and would "react to this very negatively."
As reported, last week Germany and France passed joint proposals to the OSCE regarding the provision of support to the monitoring mission in eastern Ukraine, including with the use of drones and the sending of accompanying army personnel.