First OSCE staff member killed in rebel east Ukraine

KIEV: The OSCE said on Sunday the first staff member of its monitoring mission in Ukraine had died after a patrol vehicle hit a landmine in the Russian-backed separatist east.

The announcement saw Kiev and the insurgents quickly trade blame over who was at fault for one of the most diplomatically sensitive episodes since Europe’s only war began more than three years ago.

"Tragic news from Ukraine: SMM patrol drove on mine. One OSCE patrol member killed," Austrian foreign minister and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s current chairman Sebastian Kurz wrote on Twitter.

The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) added later that "two members have been taken to hospital for further examination" but did not give details on their condition.

The organisation’s Kiev office said it could not disclose the victims’ nationalities because their families were still in the process of being notified.

The incident occurred close to Ukraine’s volatile front line near the village of Pryshyb in a rebel-run region of the separatist fiefdom of Lugansk.