Moscow nourishes the hope that the low rate of increase of the special monitoring mission (SMM) of the OSCE in Ukraine is connected with technical problems and that they can be overcome, said Last news Deputy head of the Ministry of foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Alexey Meshkov. In its decision of 12 March, the OSCE Permanent Council has increased the ceiling of the number of SMM to 1000 civilian observers. Authorized EU had previously stated that the organization difficult to recruit people to increase the staff of the mission in Ukraine because of security issues in the region. "I would hope, because it is a technical problem and that they can be overcome," said the Russian diplomat.