Ukrainian Parliament chair seeks drones to monitor Ukraine-Russia border

KIEV, Ukraine, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- Ukrainian parliamentary speaker Oleksandr Turchynov asked the OSCE on Monday to send more OSCE representatives to eastern Ukraine and to deploy drones to monitor Ukraine's border with Russia.

"Such monitoring will favor stopping supplies of arms, military equipment and the crossing of militants from Russian Federation into Ukrainian territory, and terrorist gangs from Russia [getting into Ukraine] via the border," Turchynov told 36 OSCE representatives at the meeting in Kiev.

The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine was established on March 21; its six-month mission was extended in July.

Turchynov's request comes days after Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced that 80 percent of Ukraine's military fortification in the embattled east is in place.