OSCE monitors threatened by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine
Members of the OSCE’s Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine were threatened by pro-Russian separatists on two separate occasions, as stated in a press release issued by the SMM.
According to the report, while in the city of Donetsk in the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), an armed separatist approached members of the OSCE mission, “claiming that he had seen SMM vehicles near a Ukrainian Armed Forces excavator and said he would open fire at the monitors if this were to happen again.”
Another incident occurred in the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) near Parkhomenko, where armed separatists threatened to detain SMM monitors if their vehicle “diverted from the main road upon departure.”
The OSCE also recorded an increased number of ceasefire violations in the Donetsk region, especially near Yasynuvata-Avdiivka.