A MEMBER of the European security watchdog OSCE was killed and two injured yesterday when their car hit a mine in Ukraine’s breakaway east.

Two vehicles with six observers from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe were driving near the village of Pryshyb in the self-declared Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR).

Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz, who holds the rotating OSCE chairmanship, called for a “thorough investigation,” vowing: “Those responsible will be held accountable.”

The Austrian Foreign Ministry identified the dead victim as a US man and one of the injured as a German woman.

There was no immediate response from the US State Department.

An unnamed OSCE official told the AFP news agency that the explosion was “strong enough to penetrate an armoured vehicle.”

The LPR’s official press agency said the observers had taken an unauthorised route through the region before hitting the mine.

“We know that the mentioned crew deviated from the main route and moved along side roads, which is prohibited by the mandate of the OSCE,” it said.

Kiev’s representative to the Joint Centre for Control and Co-ordination (JCCC) said both his government’s forces and those of the LPR were observing the frequently broken ceasefire at the time.

“The Ukrainian side expresses condolences to the families of the victims,” the JCCC said in a statement.

But the US Associated Press reported the LPR’s security minister had accused the Kiev coup regime’s forces of planting the mine.

The OSCE mission to Ukraine was launched in March 2014 to monitor the ceasefire brokered by Russia, Germany and France following the EU and US-backed farright-backed coup in Kiev.

Tensions further escalated earlier this year when neonazi militias incorporated into Ukraine’s army imposed a blockade on the two selfdeclared Donbass republics in the east of the country.

The Donetsk People’s Republic and LPR responded by expropriating businesses and other property of Ukrainian oligarchs.

A representative of the mission said its staff had previously come under fire at least seven times since the start of this year.